Christmas season will officially start in just a few weeks, but I thought we would get a head start before enjoying a Thanksgiving song next week. The Twelve Days of Christmas is an English Christmas Carol that resolves around a series of gifts “my true love gave to me.” The song was published in 1780 Read More
Category: Thanksgiving and Christmas songs
Profile of a Performer: Burl Ives
If you watch the animated feature Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer at Christmas time you will remember the narrator, Sam the Snowman. This snowman is voiced by the powerful vocals of Burl Ives. Ives goes on to sing such hits as A Holly Jolly Christmas and Silver and Gold in the special. Burl Ives was one Read More
The Christmas Song
The song has it’s origins in the hot sweltering summer. Mel Tormé arrived for a writing session in July 1945, at the lake house of his writing partner, Bob Wells. He noticed the first four lines of the now famous song, written on a note pad on the top of the piano. When he asked Read More
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
I’ll Be Home for Christmas is a song that can bring tears to the eye, especially if one is away from home and family for the holiday season. The song was written for just that reason, to honor the soldiers overseas who longed to be home during World War II. The song lyrics explain that Read More
Jingle Bells
Although we now sing Jingle Bells at Christmas time, the song was originally written for another holiday, Thanksgiving. Legend says that the author wrote the song for a children’s Sunday School Class at Thanksgiving. The poem was written by James Lord Pierpont and published in 1857 under the title One Horse Open Sleigh. The song Read More
Frosty the Snowman
After Gene Autry found success with Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, he was looking for another seasonal hit. He recorded the song with the Cass County Boys in 1950. The song was written by Walter Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson, who also wrote Peter Cottontail. The men brainstormed for months before deciding the song should be Read More
Thanksgiving Prayer
We have many older Thanksgiving hymns, but not as many newer Thanksgiving songs. Johnny Cash sang this song on an episode in the third season of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. This was a television show starring Jane Seymour and Joe Lando that aired during the 1990s. However, the storyline occurred in the 19th Century. Cash Read More
Behind the Song: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was almost cut from the film that made it popular. The song was sung in the 1944 MGM musical, Meet Me in St. Louis. In the film, Judy Garland’s character sings the song to her despondent little sister, played by Margaret O’Brien. The song was written by Hugh Martin Read More
Behind the Song: Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer
Bob May had not lived an easy life. As a child he was bullied and called names. Life seemed to be looking up when he graduated college in 1926, married his sweetheart and secured a job at Montgomery Ward, as a copywriter, during the years of the Great Depression. Then the couple was blessed with Read More
Behind the Song: White Christmas
White Christmas is the most popular Christmas song of all time. The Irving Berlin song is reminiscing about an “old fashioned Christmas.” Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. He often stayed up all night writing or would ask his secretary to write down what he dictated. Both La Quinta Hotel Read More