THE SURPRISING ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS SONGS

First, some good news about our economy that defies the belief of the voting public, for 62% disapprove of President Joe Biden's job dealing with the economy.  Well:

Wall Street capped its eighth straight winning week with a quiet finish Friday, following reports showing inflation on the way down and the economy potentially on the way up.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to sit less than 1% below its record set nearly two years ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 18 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite edged 0.2% higher.

On Friday, December 13, the Dow closed above 37,000 for the first time, an all-time record.  On Tuesday, the Dow closed at 37,542, now the all-time high.  The next day the Dow reached 37,633, closing Friday at 37,393.  On January 5, 2022, it almost reached 36,953, which was the all-time high until this month.

The next three days will be devoted to Christmas, non-traditional, but hopefully memorable.  Most of us have grown up with Christmas songs.  Around 45% of the world population in 160 countries engage in some Christmas festivity.  Included are the Japanese, for 3.5 million annually partake of Kentucky Fried Chicken as a tradition on Christmas.  I was preparing do just that, but 15 Craigside will today have Mochiko Chicken for lunch and Pork Tonkatsu for dinner.  And it's free, relative to to going out to get KFC.

USA Today provided its list of the all-time top ten:

1. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Andy Williams.  What?
2. Christmas Time is Here, Vince Guaraldi Trio.  Never heard of this song.  It was featured on a TV Christmas special of PEANUTS in 1965.
3. Last Christmas, Wham!  Huh?

Needless to say, I don't agree.  You would think Billboard might have something more traditional.  Nope:

1. All I Want for Christmas is You, Mariah Carey.
2. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), Darlene Love.  Oh, produced by Phil Spector with his Wall of Sound.
3. The Christmas Song, Nat King Cole.

White Christmas by Bing Crosby was #5, Feliz Navidad by José Feliciano was #7 and that Andy Williams song which was #1 in the USA Today list was #14.  What led to this blog today is that I woke up to Music Choice hearing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24, released in 1996.  It ranks at #100 on this Billboard rating.  I kind of like it.

Of course you know that White Christmas (this is the whole 2-hour 1954 film) by Bing is the best selling single of all time, with 50 million.  #2, Elton John,  Something About the Way You Look Tonight/Candle in the Wind, 33 million.  

No one knows that #3 is Mungo Jerry, In the Summertime, 30 million!!!  Mungo Jerry is a British band, not a person.  Read their story.

But wait a minute, what about Jingle Bells, Joy to the World and all those carols of old?  

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  Here is a video of some of them.
• Another one from Classic FM of the 30 Greatest Christmas of  All Time.
• The Guardian has a list of their top 20 with O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adestes Fideles) which was written in 1744, at #1.
• 12 Christmas Songs from Around the World.

Time magazine wrote about the surprising origins of Christmas songs:

• Silent Night.
• First performed in 1818 in Austria because the church organ broke, so priest Joseph Mohr dusted off an old poem and asked a friend and choir director Franz Gruber to set it to music. 
• The original version was thought lost, although the music had spread to 300 languages.
• Over the years, people speculated whether Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven was responsible.
• Only in 1994 was the original manuscript re-found in Mohr's handwriting, naming Gruber as the composer.
• 
  Carol of the Bells.
• The song is an English version of a Ukrainian folk chant by Mykola Leontovych in 1916 called Shchedryk (Bountiful Evening), about a sparrow flying around a home, traditionally sung on January 13, the beginning of the new year in the Julian calendar.

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  In 1922 Peter Wilhousky, arranger for the NBC Symphony Orchestra heard the Ukrainian national chorus perform the song in Carnegie Hall.  They were there to promote Ukrainian independence efforts.  So he copyrighted the song with Christmas lyrics in 1936.
• The first recording was  by the Westminster Choir in 1941.
• Although Carol of the Bells has been played 70 times in Carnegie Hall since the first of Schedryk, exactly a century after that Ukrainian program, Carnegie Hall staged another performance headed by Martin Scorsese, where proceeds went to the Ukraine to maintain their quest to remain independent.

• 
  Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
• In 1939, Chicago copywriter Robert May created the character of Rudolph for the annual Montgomery Ward coloring booklet.
• Then a decade later in 1949, May's brother-in-law Johnny Marks wrote the music that Gene Autry sang, topping the carts in that year.

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  The Little Drummer Boy.
• American composer Katherine Davis wrote the lyrics in 1941 based on an old Czech carol.  She called it Carol of the Drum, with a pseudonym CRM Robertson.  There is a second story that she woke up from a nap when some French song, Patapan, came into her head, leading to "pa-rum-pum-pum" in the song.
• Here is a 1951 Carol of the Drum by the Trapp Family.
• Later, The Little Drummer Boy in 1957 by Jack Halloran Singers, becoming a global hit.  The version by the Harry Simeone Chorale, though, sold more records in the U.S.
• 
  The Christmas Song.
• Mel Tormé and his writing partner Robert Wells composed this song in the heat of July 1945 in 45 minutes, primarily to cool down.
• They got Nat King Cole to record it.
• Here is Tormé's version.

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  Do You Hear What I Hear?
• In 1962 Noel Regney and Gloria Shayne wrote the song as a plea for peace amid the Cuban missile crisis.
• Lyrics, "a star, a star, dancing in the sky," were referencing nuclear bombs.
• The Harry Simeone Chorale recorded it that year, and over time, this dirge transitioned into a Christmas song.

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  It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.
• Was written by Unitarian minister Edmund Sears in 1849 at a Massachusetts church when he was depressed and thinking of revolution in Europe and the Mexican-American War.
• In 1850 Richard Willis, as requested by Sears, wrote the melody set in the key of B-flat major in a 6/8 time signature, and is today the most popular version.

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  What Child is This?
• Written in 1865 by William Dix in Scotland, but became popular in 1871 when set to the tune of Greensleeves.  Greensleeves was registered by Richard Jones in 1580.  It was not composed by Henry VIII.  Wikipedia intimates that the story is about sexual intercourse.  
• Here is a full story.

I like Mochiko Chicken, which somewhat resembles Kentucky Fried Chicken.  I thought that was to be my pick-up lunch today.  Wrong.  It was Misoyaki Chicken, not one of my favorites.  But too late, so I just warmed it and tossed over a green salad.  At least it had a nice Christmas background.

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