White Christmas (song)
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The song was written by Berlin for the 1942 musical film Holiday Inn. The composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards. Bing Crosby's record topped the Billboard chart for 11 weeks in 1942 and returned to the number one position again in December 1943 and 1944. His version would return to the top 40 a dozen times in subsequent years.
"White Christmas"
- "Let's Start the New Year Right"
- "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"
- "Jingle Bells"
July 30, 1942 (original)[1]
May 29, 1942
March 19, 1947
Radio Recorders (Los Angeles) (1942 recording)[2]
- 3:02 (1942 recording)
- 3:04 (1947 recording)
Since its release, "White Christmas" has been covered by many artists. The version sung by Bing Crosby is the world's best-selling single (in terms of sales of physical media), with estimated sales in excess of 50 million physical copies worldwide.[3] When the figures for other versions of the song are added to Crosby's, sales of the song exceed 100 million.[4][5][6]
History[edit]
Origin[edit]
Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song.[7] One story is that he wrote it in 1940, in warm La Quinta, California, while staying at the La Quinta Hotel, a frequent Hollywood retreat also favored by writer-director-producer Frank Capra, although the Arizona Biltmore also claims the song was written there.[8] He often stayed up all night writing. One day he told his secretary, "I want you to take down a song I wrote over the weekend. Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it's the best song anybody ever wrote."[9]