December 13, 2007

White Christmas


So I keep on posting about Christmas stories, legends, songs, poems, etc. This time is White Christmas’ turn, a widely celebrated song, perhaps the most famous and popular of all the Christmas songs. After all, who on Earth isn’t dreaming of a White Christmas? Ok, I know, must there be someone, statistically speaking, but if you have ever met one you would have walked away from them, wouldn’t you?

The morning after Irving Berlin wrote the song (it was early 1940) the great American songwriter went to his office and—as related by Wikipedia—told his musical secretary, “Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written—hell, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!”

First performed by Bing Crosby in the 1942 musical Holiday Inn—in a duet with Marjorie Reynolds, dubbed by Martha Mears (click here to see the YouTube video)—the song went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Since then “White Christmas” has become a Guinness Book of World Records song: over 100 million copies sold worldwide (this encompassing all versions, including on albums).

It is also to be recalled that the lyrics of the song struck a chord with the soldiers fighting in the Second World War and their families who were waiting for them back home.

In the video below Bing Crosby’s velvety smooth voice goes along with old-fashioned picture postcard landscapes—a touching jump into the past ... Enjoy!



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