

Unlikely as it sounds, a real live songwriter did sit down one day and write "Jingle Bells". By the way, when we say 'Jingle Bells', is that a type of bell? Or is it an injunction - 'Jingle', comma, 'Bells'?" "Right, but this time we pull the old switcheroo and go with 'Jingle all the way'." "Hang on, I'm still copying that first note out another five times. "Nah, why knock yourself out? It's the same one-note phrase as the first line. "Okay, same words, but on different notes - maybe up a tone or something?" "Nah, I was thinking we'd say 'Jingle Bells' all over again." And then for the second line we'll need a rhyme for 'bells'." "Okay, we'll start off with 'Jingle Bells'." It doesn't seem the kind of song you'd need a professional to write, and it's hard to imagine, say, Rodgers and Hammerstein, sitting down to rattle it off:

I notice a lot of album sleeves credit the writing of "Jingle Bells" to "Anon." And you can see why they'd think that. Before "White Christmas" and "Rudolph" came along in the Forties, before "Winter Wonderland" and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" in the Thirties, the most popular secular seasonal song in the American catalogue was "Jingle Bells", written before the Civil War but such a potent brand a century later that it was still spawning bizarre mutated progeny with every new musical trend - "Jingle Bell Boogie", "Jingle Bell Mambo" and, of course, "Jingle Bell Rock". In Boston, in the fall of 1857, the city's leading music publisher, Oliver Ditson, introduced the world to a new song called "The One-Horse Open Sleigh". Just in time for Thanksgiving, here comes, er, "Jingle Bells" - which was written not for the Yuletide season but, allegedly, for Thanksgiving. And Happy Thanksgiving!Īs well they might. This essay is adapted from my book A Song For The Season - and don't forget my own extra-jingly version of " Jingle Bells" with Miss Jessica Martin, one of 12 great tracks for your listening pleasure on our Christmas CD Making Spirits Bright. Because let's face it, nothing says Thanksgiving like a chorus of "Jingle Bells". Most people seem to think pre-Thanksgiving snow is a kind of aberration, but it's normal enough that the best-known Christmas standard about winter sleighing is, as it turns out, a Thanksgiving standard: "Jingle Bells".

Her version became the signature version of this Christmas tune.On Sunday the north-east got hit by its first snow storm, which worked out pretty well for me as I was filming a bit for this year's Mark Steyn Christmas Show (for a previous edition, see here) and it looked absolutely picture perfect winter-wise. The song was made famous in 1957 when Bobby Helms reached number 16 with it. Jingle Bell Rock was a popular Christmas song written by Joe Beal and Jim Boothe.
