For Bing Crosby, it was Christmas time in May when he recorded his classic holiday song that would become a favorite for decades to come.
Recorded on this day in 1942, “White Christmas” was originally meant for the film ‘Holiday Inn’ starring Crosby himself along with Fred Astaire. However the song made an impression on U.S. listeners as it’s connotation of home and simpler times evoked comfort and nostalgia when the country had been a few months into World War II. As time went on, it solidified itself as a go-to holiday song — so much so that if it were missing from a holiday playlist, it would be incomplete.
The song was written by Irving Berlin and while it was first played on the radio during a Christmas broadcast in 1941 before its official recording a year later, it then was released wide.
“White Christmas” went on to win Best Song at the Academy Awards in 1943. It also scored a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for Best-selling single for Christmas with over 100 million sold and was added to Library of Congress National Registry in in 2002.
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Chatting about the record in a 1972 BBC interview, Crosby couldn’t help but name the iconic holiday tune as his favorite among his work.
“The easy answer is ‘White Christmas’ because it did so much for me and I’m eternally grateful for Irving Berlin for writing it,” he said. “The song is identified with me and it’s used every Christmas. That’s the song really that had the most influence on anything I’d ever accomplished.”
And while the song has since been covered by just about every mainstream singer who’s made their way into holiday music, including Frank Sinatra, Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson, and Ella Fitzgerald, Crosby’s version is one that listeners keep coming back to.
In fact, “White Christmas” from Crosby’s Christmas album released in 1947, which features a rerecording of the song, has over 650 million streams on Spotify today.
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