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The Sound of Music: Famous Winter Songs’ Origins

来源：网络发布时间：2009-12-19

　　Sleigh bells ring … are you listening? I am, along with many other Americans who love wintertime. In addition to offering ample excuses to drink hot chocolate, bake cookies, and snuggle up with loved ones, the coldest months of the year inspire even the most reluctant songbirds to warm up their windpipes and belt out the time-tested seasonal melodies that instantly make ordinary evenings festive. From Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs to cold-weather classics, even the lyrically challenged know the words to these tunes. But how many people are familiar with their origins—which snowy ode was composed during a heat wave, for instance, or what holiday was “Jingle Bells” actually written to honor? Here, eight little ditties and their big backstories.
　　“Winter Wonderland”
　　Composed in 1934 by Felix Bernard (music) and Richard Smith (lyrics), this cheery song arose from less-than-joyful circumstances. Smith, who grew up in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, wrote “Winter Wonderland” from a sanitarium, where he was being treated for tuberculosis. The patient, stirred by the sight of a snow-covered park from his window there, went on to inspire dozens of other musical artists—ranging from Bob Dylan to Dolly Parton to Ozzy Osbourne—to cover his masterpiece and preserve its famous bridge:
　　In the meadow, we can build a snowman,
　　Then pretend his name is Parson Brown.
　　He’ll say, “Are you married?”
　　We’ll say, “No, man.
　　But you can do the job when you’re in town!”
　　“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
　　Santa’s most famous and intrepid reindeer is also a multimillion-dollar industry unto himself—he’s been the muse of moviemakers, TV producers, musicians, and even comic-book artists since Robert L. May, a Montgomery Ward employee, wrote the original story “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in 1939. Rudolph’s best-known incarnation is his role in the song millions of Americans sing every Christmas, which was first recorded in 1949 by Gene Autry. The tune’s radio popularity didn’t burn quite as brightly as Rudolph’s infamous nose—it was the only number-one hit (during the week of Christmas 1949) to disappear completely from the charts right afterward—but the words have stuck with us ever since. In 1964, Rudolph cornered the market on holiday TV when Rankin/Bass Productions debuted a stop-motion-animation special called Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which has now been rebroadcast for so many consecutive years that it’s become the longest-running television special on record.
　　“Frosty the Snowman”
　　This catchy number about a magical snowman who comes to life has been enchanting children and adults alike since Gene Autry recorded it in 1950 as a follow-up hit to “Rudolph.” Nineteen years later, Rankin/Bass scored another slam dunk by releasing a thirty-minute animated television program called Frosty the Snowman—featuring comedian Jimmy Durante as narrator and Jackie Vernon as Frosty—which immortalized the song’s main character and continues to air annually in December across the United States. These days, Frosty may be as friendly and lovable as ever, but he’s also a tech-savvy guy with his own MySpace page, where his thousands of friends can watch his movies all year long. Lucky visitors who write to him in December may receive a letter filled with “real” snow in return.
　　“Jingle Bell Rock”
　　Who knew a PR guy and an ad man could write a wintertime hit that would resonate with Americans for the next five-plus decades? Joe Beal and Jim Boothe did just that, and then, in 1957, Bobby Helms picked up where they left off, releasing the rockabilly version of “Jingle Bell Rock” that we still know best. Although the song never mentions Christmas specifically, its title and lyrics allude to the go-to holiday melody “Jingle Bells,” and guitarist Hank Garland strums the beginning of that song’s chorus; it also contains references to other 1950s musical hits, including “Rock Around the Clock.” Apparently, “Jingle Bell Rock” is one of the great equalizers of music as well—Hall and Oates, Billy Idol, and Ashanti are just a few of the vastly disparate musicians who have come out with their own adaptations of it.
　　“Let It Snow”
　　This song may have a straightforward title, but its origins are full of irony. As effectively as “Let It Snow” convinces listeners that “the weather outside is frightful” and “doesn’t show signs of stopping,” the truth is that the day in 1945 when the composer, Jule Styne, and the lyricist, Sammy Cahn, came up with this tune was one of the hottest on record in Hollywood—it was the middle of July! In addition, though it’s often identified as Christmas music, “Let It Snow” was actually written to be a love song—and both Styne and Cahn were Jewish. But that didn’t stop the First Lady of Song, jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, from including it on her 1960 album, Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas.
　　“Baby, It’s Cold Outside”
　　When Frank Loesser wrote this duet in 1944 and debuted it with his wife at a housewarming party they hosted, he could never have guessed how it would resonate with the American public. After four years of singing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” at informal gatherings, Loesser sold the rights to MGM, which then featured two performances of the song in its 1949 movie, Neptune’s Daughter—and that same year, Loesser took home an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Today, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” enjoys regular airplay throughout the winter months and has been covered by numerous renowned musicians, most comic among them Miss Piggy, who sang it with ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev on The Muppet Show while attempting to seduce him in a sauna.
　　“Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel”
　　Sometimes the simplest songs are the catchiest, which explains why Americans of all faiths can recite the chorus to the beloved Hanukkah anthem “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel”: Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel
　　I made it out of clay
　　And when it’s dry and ready
　　Then dreidel I shall play!
　　This timeless tune honors the spinning top that Jewish children customarily play with after the lighting of the menorah each Hanukkah. Each of the dreidel’s four sides is imprinted with a Hebrew character; together, the letters comprise an acronym for “A great miracle happened here.” Before the dreidel was a kids’ toy, however, it may have served a stealthier purpose. Some people believe that the Jews originally used the tops to conceal their outlawed Torah studies from their Greek enemies; when a Greek soldier advanced upon a group of Jews, they would stash their books and begin spinning dreidels to present the illusion that they were gambling.
　　“Jingle Bells”
　　One of the twenty-five most recorded songs in history, “Jingle Bells” is as synonymous with Christmas as Santa Claus and gingerbread cookies. So it’s hard to believe that the one-horse open sleigh in the song was originally headed o’er the hills not to a yuletide celebration, but to a different holiday altogether—when Bostonian James Pierpont composed “Jingle Bells” in the 1850s, it was for a Thanksgiving program at the church in Georgia where he was the organist. However, the infectious melody and lyrics were such a hit that the congregation requested a repeat performance at the church’s Christmas service that same year, and from there, the song’s popularity skyrocketed—right into outer space, in fact, where Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra played it with a harmonica and sleigh bells and broadcast their performance back to Earth on December 16, 1965.
　　Songs for the Ages
　　 No matter what climate you live in or what holidays you observe, these musical standards have the power to inspire nostalgic thoughts of simpler times: snowy sleigh rides, fireside family gatherings, and joyful group sing-alongs. This year, when you’re craving a respite from the hubbub of holiday shopping and parties, take a night for yourself—turn off your phone, brew some mulled cider, and revisit the sentimental songs that transport you to your own winter wonderland.