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.
