White Christmas
1942
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Holiday Inn
1942
VERSE
The sun is shining, the grass is green,
The orange and palm trees sway.
There's never been such a day
In Beverly Hills, L.A.
But it's December the twenty-fourth,
And I am longing to be up North.
CHORUS
I'm dreaming of a White Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.
I'm dreaming of a White Christmas
With ev'ry Christmas card I write:
"May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white."
Irving Berlin’s biggest hit, this Holiday Inn number won the Academy Award for best original song in 1942. Here, are the two enlightening quotes from Robert Kimball’s Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin:
“I wrote it for a revue I intended producing, changed my mind and put it away until it was used in a Bing Crosby picture. At the time I had no idea “White Christmas” would be a perennial hit or that Paramount would add to its popularity with a movie of the same name. When the song first became popular, I attributed it to the War and the fact that Christmas means peace. I felt that since people were singing it I ought to write another verse. But I couldn’t do it. New words would not come.” — Irving Berlin, Los Angeles Examiner (Dec 14, 1954)
“We have learned to be a little sad and a little lonesome without being sickly about it. This feeling is caught in the song of a thousand juke boxes and the tune whistled in streets and homes. “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” When we sing that we don’t hate anybody. And there are things we love that we’re going to have sometime if the breaks are not too bad against us. Way down under this latest hit of his Irving Berlin catches us where we love peace.” — Carl Sandburg, Chicago Times (Dec 1942).
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| Recorded | Performers | Label | Cat.# | Matrix |
|
|
| | Jo Stafford | Capitol | 15200 | |
| | Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra | Capitol | 15202 | |
| | Wesley Tuttle / String Band | Capitol | 15206 | Y2739 |
| | Jo Stafford | Capitol | 1262 | |
| | Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra | Capitol | 1263 | |
| | Wesley Tuttle | Capitol | 1266 | |
| | Walter Schumann Voices | Capitol | 1841 | |
| | Les Paul & Mary Ford | Capitol | 2617 | |
| | Frank Sinatra | Capitol | 2954 | |
| | Statemen Quartet | Capitol | 40263 | |
| | Ken Griffin (Organ & Chimes) | Columbia | 38911 | CCO5166 |
| | Sammy Kaye | Columbia | 39573 | CO47066 |
| | Arthur Godfrey | Columbia | 40109 | CO50193 |
| | Rosemary Clooney | Columbia | 40355 | RHCO33220 |
| | Rosemary Clooney | Columbia | 40370 | RHCO33220 |
| | Guy Lombardo's Orchestra | Decca | 23738 | |
| | Charles Cronham (Organ/Chime) | Mercury | 1126 | 1923 |
| | Patti Page | Mercury | 1243 | |
| | Vic Damone | Mercury | 5178 | 1913 |
| | Eddy Howard & His Orchestra | Mercury | 5216 | 2024 |
| | Vic Damone | Mercury | 5515 | 1913 |
| | Patti Page | Mercury | 5732 | |
| | Swing & Sway W Sammy Kaye | RCA Victor | 20-2392 | |
| | Three Suns | RCA Victor | 20-3568 | |
| | Hugo Winterhalter & His Orchestra | RCA Victor | 20-3937 | |
| | Eddie Fisher (Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra + Chorus) | RCA Victor | 20-4910 | E2VB-6514 |
| | Bobby Doyle W Ray Bloch Orchestra | Signature | 15058-A | 287 |
| | Monica Lewis W Ray Bloch Orchestra | Signature | 15151-A | 539-1B |
| 05/29/1942 | Bing Crosby | Decca | 23778 | DLA3009 |
| 05/29/1942 | Bing Crosby (Ken Darby Singers, John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra) | Decca | 18429-A | DLA3009 |
| 06/25/1942 | Freddie Martin & His Orchestra | Victor | 27946 | 72435 |
| 07/01/1942 | Charlie Spivak & His Orchestra | Columbia | 36649 | CO32962 |
| 07/01/1942 | Charlie Spivak & His Orchestra | Harmony | 1082 | CO32962 |
| 07/30/1942 | Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra | Capitol | 124 | 64 |
| 05/19/1944 | Guy Lombardo & His Orchestra | Decca | 18717-A | 72146 |
| 05/19/1944 | Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians | Decca | 28409 | 72146 |
| 10/17/1944 | Jasha Heifetz | Decca | 23376 | 72461 |
| 11/14/1944 | Frank Sinatra | Columbia | 38257 | CO33811 |
| 11/14/1944 | Frank Sinatra | Columbia | 36756 | CO33811 |
| 11/14/1944 | Frank Sinatra | Columbia | 36860 | CO33811 |
| 11/14/1944 | Frank Sinatra | Columbia | 37152 | CO33811 |
| 09/19/1946 | Jo Stafford And Lyn Murray Singers (Paul Weston Orchestra) | Capitol | 319 | 999 |
| 10/22/1946 | Harry James & His Orchestra | Columbia | 37955 | HCO2114 |
| 02/27/1947 | Ink Spots | Decca | 24140 | 73805 |
| 03/19/1947 | Bing Crosby (Ken Darby Singers, John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra) | Decca | 15074 | L4374 |
| 06/10/1947 | Carmen Cavallaro | Decca | 24141 | 73948 |
| 07/11/1947 | Harry Breuer / Jesse Crawford | Decca | 24143 | 73998 |
| 07/15/1947 | Ethel Smith | Decca | 24142 | 74004 |
| 12/11/1947 | Fred Waring | Decca | 24500 | 74225 |
| 09/14/1949 | Sister Rosetta Tharpe | Decca | 48119 | 75260 |
| 09/22/1952 | Louis Armstrong with | Decca | 28443 | 83439 |
| 04/10/1954 | Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Peggy Lee, Trudy Stevens (Joseph J. Lilley Orchestra + Chorus) | Decca | 29342 | L7622 |
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Year | Title | Medium | Type | Usage |
|
|
1942 | Holiday Inn | film | film original | introduced |
1946 | Blue Skies | film | | reused |
1954 | White Christmas | film | film original | reused |
2004 | White Christmas | stage | stage adaptation | reused |