Song: White Christmas
Artist: Bing Crosby (1942)
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White Christmas is the most famous and popular holiday song of all time! Written by Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant to the United States, it was popularized by Bing Crosby in the film “Holiday Inn”, for which it was nominated for an academy award.
The song established that there could be commercially successful secular Christmas songs, and since its release, “White Christmas” has been covered by many artists, being the world’s best-selling single with estimated sales in excess of 100 million copies worldwide. The version by Bing Crosby has sold more than 50 million copies alone. “White Christmas” is also the most-recorded Christmas song ever; there have been more than 500 recorded versions of the song, in several different languages.
It has often been noted that the mix of melancholy—”just like the ones I used to know”—with comforting images of home—”where the treetops glisten”—resonated especially strongly with listeners during World War II.
Happy Christmas Eve to all those celebrating!