White Christmas

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White Christmas is the title of a Christmas carol composed by Irving Berlin . The version released in 1947, sung by Bing Crosby , is the best-selling single worldwide to date, with an estimated 50 million units sold.

History of origin

The successful composer Irving Berlin could neither read nor write music, so he left the writing of his works to his secretary, Helmy Kresa. On January 8, 1940, Irving presented his new 48-bar composition White Christmas Kresa, which he then put into sheet music. Irving expressed his belief to Kresa that this title was not only the best song he had ever written, but that it was the best song anyone had ever written. When Berlin then presented the song - shortened by the originally planned introductory verses - to the rather taciturn Crosby, he was immediately convinced: "You don't have to worry about that."

Studio recording

Bing Crosby first introduced the song to the public on December 25, 1941 on his NBC radio show. The following year there was the recording session on May 29, 1942 (Decca DLA3009) in the Decca Studios in New York City for the planned film Holiday Inn (German title: music, music ) with Crosby and Fred Astaire, for the next White Christmas five more songs were recorded that day; In total, the production in the film used twelve Berlin songs with Crosby. The John Scott Trotter Orchestra played, the choir accompaniment came from the Ken Darby Singers.

publication

Decca seasonal single White Christmas / Let's Start The New Year Right (# 18429) was released in August 1942, parallel to the film Music, Music (Holiday Inn) , which released in the United States on August 4, 1942. The dream of a white Christmas did not stop in midsummer in America; It was not until October 3, 1942, that the title appeared for the first time in the pop hit parade, where it reached first place on October 31, which it held for 11 weeks. In the following years the romantic Christmas song came 16 times in the Top30 and reached the top of the charts twice, namely in 1945 and in January 1947. On March 19, 1947, Crosby had to record the song again in the same formation (Decca L4374) because the master from 1942 was damaged by frequent use. In the almost identical arrangement, however, the violin part was reinforced. This is the original recording used exclusively on almost all records and CDs and has made the title a success. Not least because of the annual release at Christmas, the song achieved immense sales success.

In the Holiday Inn film soundtrack , White Christmas occupies the most prominent position, along with other compositions by Irving Berlin. The song can already be heard in the opening credits and then again and again in the film, sung (once by Bing Crosby, once by Marths Mears ) and in an instrumental version. In 1943 the film was awarded the Oscar for best film song.

Sales success

The sales figures are contradicting itself. What is certain is that this Christmas carol is one of the best-selling singles of all time. Its seasonal orientation will improve sales success every year. Seven million copies were sold in the first five years, 30 million in North America by 1968, and another 32 million copies worldwide. The majority of the sources assume 50 million singles worldwide, the Guinness Book stipulates 30 million (and over 100 million in all languages). David A. Jasen assumes 30 million singles. Regardless of the big differences in record sales, White Christmas is the most valuable song copyright in the world, especially since there are new record sales and especially broadcasts every year.

Thanks to the ongoing popularity of White Christmas song was a second time basis for a music film, this time directly under the title White Christmas (German White Christmas ) and again with Crosby in the lead role, the now Danny Kaye stood aside. When the film hit theaters in the fall of 1954, it was a box-office hit. Just in time for the film's theatrical release, Frank Sinatra , meanwhile with a new record label - Capitol Records  - released another single version of White Christmas . In 1957, both artists sang the title as a duet on Sinatra's television show on ABC-TV, a high point for Sinatra, who had always admired Crosby.

statistics

Bing Crosby was not only successful with this single. A total of 396 of his titles hit the charts, including 38 number one hits . According to ASCAP , the composer Irving Berlin wrote 812 songs, 451 of which became hits. The ASCAP published a notice in 1998, according to which White Christmas was the most successful Christmas carol of all time with 500 versions worldwide, which has around 125 million records in all languages ​​worldwide. It was listed at number two on the RIAA's Songs of the Century list in 2001.

Other Christmas carols also achieved above-average sales in terms of their seasonal repetition effect. Gene Autry's Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer brought it to eight million, Bing Crosby Silent Night (the English version of Silent Night ) came to seven million.

Chart placements

period Highest ranking, total weeksChart placementsChart placements
(Period, placements, weeks)
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1956/57 - - - - US65 (1 week)
US
1957/58 - - - - US34 (6 weeks)
US
1958/59 - - - - US66 (2 weeks)
US
1959/60 - - - - US59 (1 week)
US
1960/61 - - - - US28 (3 weeks)
US
1961/62 - - - - US12 (4 weeks)
US
1962/63 - - - - US38 (3 weeks)
US
1977/78 - - - UK5 (7 weeks)
UK 		-
1983/84 - - - UK95 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
1985/86 - - - UK69 (4 weeks)
UK 		-
1998/99 - - - UK29 (4 weeks)
UK 		-
2007/08 DE56 (2 weeks)
DE 		- CH84 (1 week)
CH 		UK42 (4 weeks)
UK 		-
2008/09 DE53 (4 weeks)
DE 		- CH56 (1 week)
CH 		- -
2009/10 DE70 (2 weeks)
DE 		- - UK91 (1 week)
UK 		-
2010/11 DE90 (1 week)
DE 		- - - -
2011/12 - - - UK92 (1 week)
UK 		-
2015/16 - - - UK75 (1 week)
UK 		-
2016/17 - - CH95 (1 week)
CH 		UK47 (4 weeks)
UK 		-
2017/18 - - - UK22 (4 weeks)
UK 		-
2018/19 DE81 (1 week)
DE 		- CH51 (1 week)
CH 		UK31 (4 weeks)
UK 		US34 (2 weeks)
US
2019/20 DE67 (1 week)
DE 		- CH40 (1 week)
CH 		UK31 (4 weeks)
UK 		US42 (1 week)
US
2020/21 DE39 (4 weeks)
DE 		AT59 (1 week)
AT 		CH69 (2 weeks)
CH 		UK49 (5 weeks)
UK 		US20 (4 weeks)
US
2021/22 DE65 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / provisional / 2021DE 		AT44 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / provisional / 2021AT 		- UK55 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / provisional / 2021UK 		US25 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / provisional / 2021US
All in all DE39 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / preliminaryDE 		AT44 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / preliminaryAT 		CH40 (7 weeks)
CH 		UK5 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / preliminaryUK 		US12 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / preliminaryUS

hatched gray : no chart data available for this year

Cultural significance

Because of its cultural and historical significance to the United States , the first recording of White Christmas , sung by Bing Crosby, was entered into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress on January 27, 2003 . 

Special

On April 29, 1975, the song was broadcast on the radio as a sign of the evacuation of the US soldiers from Saigon and thus marked the start of Operation Frequent Wind .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roy J. Harris, Jr .: The Best-Selling Record of All, 'White Christmas' and the reasons it endures. In: Wall Street Journal , December 5, 2009.
  2. ^ Reed Music Information . In: Publishers Weekly , 2002.
  3. ↑ Mark Luce. In: The Christian Science Monitor , 2002.
  4. ^ A b Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records . 1985, p. 34 f.
  5. ↑ The Guinness Book of Records , 1988. p. 279.
  6. ^ David A. Jasen: Tin Pan Alley, An Encyclopedia of The Golden Age of American Song . 2003, p. 96.
  7. ↑ ASCAP Work ID: 530074223, ISWC : T-070.199.660-2, accessed via ASCAP title search
  8. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
  9. ^ Original recording of White Christmas in the National Recording Registry. Retrieved August 12, 2017 .