Best Version of “White Christmas” December 16, 2022
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Pop Culture.Tags: 1942, 1947, Bing Crosby, Darlene Love, Drifters, Irving Berlin, White Christmas, WWII
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Let’s play a game. It’s [loosely] called “name the best version of (fill-in-the-blank Christmas song)”. After all, there are but so many Christmas songs out there, some 200 years old (or older), some 150+ years old, some 80+ years old, some 65-ish, some more recent than that. The point is, myriads of recording artists have cut their own versions of many of these songs for almost 125 years. What makes things interesting is that each singer/group/ensemble has had their own “take” on them. So, whose “take” is the best? Let us explore that answer.
Why not start with Irving Berlin’s venerable “White Christmas”? Yes, the man who wrote an estimated 1,500 songs over the course of his 101 years on this Earth, including “God Bless America” and many legendary songs from the Golden Age of the Great American Song Book (“Cheek to Cheek”, “Blue Skies”, “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, “Easter Parade”, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, to name but a few) also gave us “White Christmas”. It is altogether fitting and proper to take a look at this sing, since this year marks the 80th anniversary of its official release to the world.
The context behind the origins of “White Christmas” are multi-layered. Just as Margaret Mitchell’s Civil War-era novel “Gone With The Wind” was a smashing success during the Great Depression, so was “White Christmas” at the dawn of America’s direct involvement in WWII. While accounts vary as to exactly when Berlin actually wrote the song (within the years 1940 or ’41), it has been established that the first public performance of the song was indeed by Bing Crosby on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music hall, on Christmas Day of 1941, only 18 days after Pearl Harbor and 17 days after FDR asked Congress to declare war on Japan.
The song made a larger debut on-screen the following year in 1942 when it was featured in the now-classic movie “Holiday Inn”. Crosby not only sang the song in the film, but also, as was customary at the time, recorded a studio version of the song on the Decca label as part of an accompanying album of songs from the movie. He was accompanied by the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra when they made this recording on May 29, 1942. It took them only 18 minutes to produce a rendition that satisfied everyone.
While the popularity of the 1942 movie Holiday Inn did eventually help propel record sales (it did top the charts by end of October of ’42), a stronger social undercurrent helped make the song legendary. With America having officially joined the fight against the Axis powers after Pearl Harbor, the population was mobilized onto a war footing at an unprecedented scale and pace. Yes, America had been mobilized a generation earlier in the First World War, but this new mobilization made the Allied Expeditionary Forces of old, and the industry supporting it, pale in comparison.
Within months after the fateful events of early December of 1941, many an able-bodied American man would be enlisted into service and deployed to many a spot abroad, or at least, far from home, from the deserts of North Africa to the Aleutian Islands, to air bases in England, to naval flotillas patrolling the South Pacific, and many spots in between.
The song thus spoke to them, and to their families at home, of simpler times, or deep nostalgia. The right mix of melancholy and comforting images of home during the Holidays resonated deeply with listeners during WWII, and the Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests to play this song during that time.
In its first year of recording and release, Bing Crosby’s first version of this song stayed at the top of the charts for 11 weeks. Sales carried well into early 1943, and Decca re-released the song for Christmas seasons of 1945 and ’46. For Holiday Inn, the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song of 1942.
Ironically, the version with which most of us are familiar is Crosby’s re-recording of the song in 1947, also accompanied by both the Trotter Orchestra and the Darby Singers. The addition of the flutes and a slightly more pronounced celesta helps make it audibly different from the first version without being too overtly different.
Readers may or may not be aware that Crosby’s 1942 and ’47 renditions combined add up to the greatest-selling record of all time: more so than any record by Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Elton John, or anybody. By 1968, sales had reached 30 Million alone. After much research, the Guinness Book of World Records concluded in 2007 that the record had sold at least 50 Million copies, though some estimates reach as high as 100 Million.
Twelve years after the song’s and the hit flick Holiday Inn’s initial release, Paramount was finally able to make a follow-up film for both, simply calling it “White Christmas”. It proceeded to become the most successful movie of 1954. While not as strong a film as its 1942 predecessor, it nevertheless has earned its place as a Christmas classic movie in its own right. That it was filmed in then-cutting-edge “VistaVision” has helped it translate well onto HDTV screens today. Naturally, the finale number was the movie’s namesake.
To broaden the scope: in the 80 years since it was first recorded, “White Christmas” has been cut more than 500 times, making it the most-recorded Christmas song. As mentioned in the beginning, many artists have offered their own “take” on it. For example, while Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters’ version [also] from 1954 is always a fun listen, it still is not has great as Bing’s original version.
That said, a solid runner-up is Darlene Love’s rendition on the also-classic album, Phil Spector’s “A Christmas Gift For You” from 1963. As the first track of this perennially strong album, Love’s rendition packs much more of a virtual “punch” than people usually expect from the song, aided in part by Spector’s “Wall of Sound” audio effect, but also by the singer’s soulful efforts. Also notable of this version is that it includes the prelude verse that many other artists skip singing.
The real question is, which is really better, Bing’s 1942 version, or the 1947 remake? Most folks would likely side with the latter, since that is the one with which they are familiar. One cannot blame them, for that version is wonderful and timeless. My vote is for the 1942 version: the one that started it all. It has a sharpness that the remake lacks, and the historian in me reflects on how it spoke to people’s hopes, fears, and comforts as we were beginning to take on a worldwide menace on an unprecedented scale.
The lasting legacy of Crosby’s 1942 version is grander than one might expect. Its success on the charts legitimized the market for Christmas music. To be sure, more than a few excellent versions of Christmas songs were recorded before this landmark cut, including notable examples by Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller. But Crosby, paired with Berlin’s incredible contribution to the Great American Christmas Songbook, finally opened the recording industry’s eyes to the potential goldmine they were sitting on with regard to recording music for the Christmas season. In short, Crosby and Berlin, with White Christmas, paved the way for the bulk of popular Christmas music we have to enjoy today.
The Top Three Greatest Christmas Albums December 18, 2014
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Pop Culture.Tags: album, Baby Please Come Home, Bethlehem, Bing Crosby, Bob B. Soxx, Capitol, Christmas, Darlene Love, Dean Martin, Deck the Halls, Frank Sinatra, Gordon Jenkins, Hark, Herald Angels, Jingle Bells, Judy Garland, king, Mistletoe and Holly, music, Nat Cole, Nelson Riddle, Phil Spector, Ronettes, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Sleigh Ride, The Christmas Song, The Christmas Waltz, The Crystals, White Christmas, Winter Wonderland
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No. 1: Nat King Cole: The Christmas Song. What merits this as number one? Start with the fact that the title cut of the album is perhaps the most iconic recording of a secular Christmas song. Add in the fact that A) this is Nat “King” Cole, whose vocal talents just feel perfect for music to promote Yuletide cheer, and B) this is a Capitol Records album, produced at the time (1960, specifically) when the label included not only Cole, but also both Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as his stablemates and thus the label pretty much owned the mainstream popular music market in that era. But Cole mixes well the secular and religious songs, making fun, upbeat versions with some (e.g., “Deck the Halls” and “Hark! The Herald Angels”) and poignant versions with others (e.g., “O Tannenbaum” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem”), making for a compilation that spans the proper emotional gamut during this sentimental time of year.
The only irony is that it does not contain the best version of “The Christmas Song,” a tune that Cole himself would record officially at least three different times, but that is a discussion for another day.
No. 1a: A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra. Make no mistake about it, this album was cut in 1957, when Ol’ Blue Eyes was on top of his game, only a year or so removed from recording his two greatest albums ever (“Songs for Swinging Lovers” and “A Swingin’ Affair”). It shows in this album, too. Just as the previously mentioned album introduced me to Nat “King” Cole, so too did this particular album introduce me to Sinatra at a very early age.
Certain songs grab you in such a way that you remember where you were the first time you heard them. For me, it was Christmastime while I was in kindergarten when I first heard the opening track, “Jingle Bells,” on this album, and it stuck with me ever since. The song is so well-known as to be trite, but every once in a while, one hears a version that is so well-rendered as to rise above the triteness. This is one of those songs.
But if you are first grabbed by that opening track, you stay for “Mistletoe and Holly.” To this day, few have attempted to cover it because Sinatra did it so well the first time. But two additional tracks truly cement the album’s timelessness. Sammy Cahn’s “The Christmas Waltz” truly helps define the song collection, and no Christmas season is complete without enjoying this track a few times. Others have tried to duplicate Frank’s efforts with this song over the years, but each time, they keep coming up short.
The other track that seals the album’s greatness for all time is Sinatra’s definitive version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Sinatra truly captures the essence of the song itself, arguably outdoing the other definitive version by Judy Garland from 1944. Listening to this song proves to any discerning listener why Frank Sinatra was indeed the singing voice of the 20th Century.
The religious songs on the latter part of the album are not too shabby, either. Recent re-releases of the album include an alternative version of “The Christmas Waltz,” which is not quite as good as the official rendition, but it remains a good listen nonetheless (it being a Nelson Riddle arrangement, compared to the Gordon Jenkins arrangements that populate the rest of the track line-up).
No. 3: Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift For You (1963). One unique aspect of this album is that it does not center on one artist, but rather on several artists/groups that were the talent pool on Spector’s label at the time. The recording effect that defined the legendary producer’s records came to be known as the “Wall of Sound,” (a primer for those unfamiliar with this effect of recorded sound) and while that effect lifted many Spector-produced tracks to legendary status and made for a definitive element in some music from 1960s, one could argue that this effect was perfected on this very album. If that exceeds credibility in the minds of some readers, I invite them to listen to the last several bars of instrumentation of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by The Crystals: it’s Phil Spector at his finest (this is not to mention that the song’s arrangement has been copied by many artists in the 50+ years since).
There is not a bad track in the line-up, and they include some of the most iconic versions of certain secular Christmas songs. The Ronettes’ version of “Sleigh Ride”, for example, remains the definitive version of this song – in most circles – to this day, though ironically paced with a shuffle beat (one of the oldest rhythmic patterns in popular music). Bob B. Soxx’s rendition of “Here Comes Santa Claus” is a fresh take on that song, too. Indeed, there is a timeless “hipness” to these tracks, which is what makes the album so classic.
Of course, Darlene Love contributed the lion’s share of musical gems. Her version of “White Christmas” is the closest one to rival Bing Crosby’s eternally popular 1942 and 1947 versions. “Baby Please Come Home” has become an iconic song in its own right, and her multi-dubbed vocals on “Winter Wonderland” have made it arguably the best version of that winter-themed song to date. With such a strong line-up of recordings, it almost makes “Marshmallow World” get lost in the mix, but an attentive listen reveals that this track is the most underrated on the album. This is easily the greatest version anybody has made of the song, and the energy that Love puts into the vocals on this track are positively contagious. Moreover, if one focuses just on Love’s contributions to this song compilation, one cannot help but conclude that these make up the very cornerstone to her musical legacy.
Put all three albums together, and you have a solid trifecta of timeless Christmas music that has stood the test of time for more than five decades, which is all too fitting for a holiday season partially defined by timeless traditions.