The Timeless Popularity of "White Christmas"
For many folks, Christmas just isn't Christmas without at least one rendition of the familiar holiday song, "White Christmas." Others never get tired of viewing the classic film during this festive time of the year. But how did the "White Christmas" craze begin, and when did it become the holiday icon that it is today? To learn the history of this popular Christmas song, one must travel back decades in time, to the year 1940, when the song was born in the mind of a popular song writer by the name of Irving Berlin.
Berlin had been commissioned to write a song about every holiday of the year for the upcoming film, "Holiday Inn." However, his Jewish roots left him sorely lacking when it came to creating a piece for the Christmas holiday. It was his observations of the festivities of the season when he was a boy growing up in New York, coupled with the time that he spent in Los Angeles, that inspired the song "White Christmas." When crooner Bing Crosby heard Berlin audition his song in 1941, he knew that the tune would be a hit.
"White Christmas" goes to the Public
Bing Crosby first sang "White Christmas" on his radio show, The Kraft Music Hall, on Christmas day in 1941. Unfortunately, no copy of this recording was saved. In 1942, Crosby recorded the song for Decca, accompanied by the John Scott Trotter Orchestra. In that same year, "Holiday Inn" was released, which featured Crosby singing the song as a duet with Marjorie Reynolds. By the end of this year, "White Christmas" had topped the charts, making it the biggest selling Christmas single of all time.
Because of the success of the song, another movie was released in 1954, titled "White Christmas." This movie, starring Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, topped the box-office sales during that holiday season, and was the highest grossing movie of that year. Today, many people still have a copy of "White Christmas" in their own DVD collection, and they love to get it out during the holidays for an encore viewing year after year.
The 2007 Guinness Book of World Records lists "White Christmas" as the top selling single of all time, and estimates that at least 50 million copies of the single have been sold. You can still find copies of the album "Merry Christmas," where Crosby has one of his recordings of this song, since it has never been out of print since it was first recorded. To be sure, "White Christmas" has become a holiday mainstay, and many people simply wouldn't feel that it was truly the season without Crosby crooning the tune in their own homes.
