During the holidays, you start belting out some of your favorite Christmas songs when they come on the radio. You sing all the lyrics, and you may even perform some of the instrumental parts, but you probably don’t think about the history or story behind these songs.
That’s about to change. Here are some fun facts about a few of your favorite Christmas songs.
All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)
Donald Gardner and his wife had a baby in 1944, and while she was resting, he took over her 2nd grade class. He was asked to write and perform a song for the Christmas program, and to get inspiration, he asked the class what they wanted for Christmas. While they were telling him what they wanted, he noticed that out of the 22 kids, 16 of them were missing their two front teeth. The song was performed and the crowd loved it.
Blue Christmas
Blue Christmas was originally recorded in 1950 by Ernest Tubb. In 1957, Elvis Presley recorded the song, but it didn’t debut as a single until 1964. The first time that Elvis performed the song live occurred in 1968.
Deck the Halls
Deck the Halls is a popular Christmas song used on television for two major reasons: it doesn’t have any religious ties and it is royalty free.
Dominick the Donkey
Dominick the Donkey was written and performed back in 1960. While it gained popularity in Italy and America, it didn’t gain much visibility in the UK. Chris Moyles, a DJ in the UK, started playing the song more regularly and told his listeners that they could download it on both Amazon and iTunes. Because of this, Dominick the Donkey made it to the charts in the UK for the first time in 2011, 51 years after its debut.
Here Comes Santa Claus
Gene Autry was in the annual Hollywood Boulevard Christmas Parade and was on a horse and carriage a few floats ahead of Santa. During the parade, Autry noticed that none of the children seemed to care about any of the upcoming floats except for Santa and noticed that they were yelling, “Here comes Santa Claus”. The song was written shortly thereafter.
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
This song was first recorded by Jimmy Boyd. He was only 13 years old at the time.
Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bell Rock was first recorded by Bobby Helms and is considered the first “rock and roll” Christmas song ever made.
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
This song was first recorded by Brenda Lee when she was 13 years old. The song was recorded in July, so the producer put the air conditioning on blast and even bought and decorated a Christmas tree to put Brenda in the holiday spirit.
You’re a Mean One (Mr. Grinch)
This song was written by Dr. Seuss but was recorded by Thurl Ravenscroft, who was also the voice of Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger. The song appears three times in the movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Clara Christen is selecting her top 5 Christmas songbooks for guitar. Join her in her quest by visiting Guitar Place.