THE BEST CHISTMAS SONGS EVER! (Says I.) Part 3

The Choir of Corona del Sol High School in Tempe, AZ.

We're in the middle of the pack for our list of the 25 best Christmas songs, which means there's only 3 shopping days left until Christmas.  Get on it procrastinators!  If you need help, there are some handy tips for last-minute shoppers here.

This edition of the list is heavy on angels and bells, for some reason, and features the second appearance of Bing Crosby.  Let's get straight to it.  To see the first two installments in this list, click here and here.



15. Carol of the Bells:  I think the first time I noticed this song was in Home Alone, after Macauly Culkin offers sage advice to the old scary neighbor:


But the song's story is more interesting than that.  The tune is based on a Ukrainian folk chant, called "Shchedryk", which dates back to Pre-Christian times and was associated with the pagan New Year, which was in the spring.  The English words to the song were written by Peter Wilhousky in the 1930s and are copyrighted, but the melody is not, which why you so often hear this as an instrumental piece rather than sung.

The version from Home Alone above was adapted by John Williams, and is actually one of my favorite versions, but Trans-Siberian orchestra has a pretty good, very dramatic thing going with their version.




14. Angels We Have Heard on High:  It's kind of amazing how many different musical settings one image, a bunch of angels singing in mid-air, can inspire over a couple thousand years.  This one makes my list for one reason, an one reason only: a crazy extended Glooooooooooooooria.  It's the first of two such notes on this list, the second one, coming up later, is even more over the top.

One of the interesting things about "Angels" is how cross cultural it is, it originates with a French carol that was translated into English, and commonly appears in Gaelic and in Portuguese.  Here;s a fun one, performed by the Bowen Beer Bottle Band ... You read that right.




13. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: This song is great because it lends itself to so many different variations.  Slow and dignified, loud and triumphant, single singer or large chorus.  It might have been different though; the song first appeared in 1739, with lyrics written by Charles Wesley, who was one of the founders of the English Methodist movement and, by all accounts, something of a wet blanket.  His tune was a slow, dirge-like slog, and it had to wait a hundred years before Felix Mendelssohn, who also gave us the Wedding March, to give it the celebratory tune that we enjoy today.

But the song really makes the list for two reasons; this:

And this:

 
12. Silver Bells: This one reminds me of my days in New York, which is reason enough to include it on the list as far as I'm concerned.  It was first sung in 1951 by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in The Lemon Drop Kid, then made popular by Bing Crosby, which must have burned Bob pretty bad.  Bing already has a song in this segment, coming up, so here's the original movie clip, featuring a cranky Fred Mertz William Frawley.


11. White Christmas: This is Bing Crosby's second entry in the list, and also the second song that was introduced in Holiday Inn.  This one was a huge hit when it came out, and remains the single best selling single of all time.  It also won an Academy Award and spawning a whole other movie of its own, 1954's White Christmas starring Crosby again, partnered with Danny Kaye.  And what the heck, let's just use that one for our clip:



Coming up tomorrow, we start our top ten, with evergreen shrubs, hilarious anachronism, and more! See you soon.