Monday, December 14, 2015

Music Monday - White Christmas

If you listened to our American weather channels, you would think everybody in the country was hoping for a White Christmas.

It got me to thinking about the song White Christmas....which may well be the number one best selling "single" of all time in the world, with more than 50 million copies sold.

The song was written by a Russian Jewish immigrant to the United States, Irving Berlin, homesick for his family.  It premiered on radio shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941.  This is one of many, many versions of the song - I enjoyed this rendition more for the dancing.

In 1942, the song was featured in a film called Holiday Inn, and in my opinion, there is nothing like the original.  Ah, Bing Crosby.  The rest, as they say, is history.

We shouldn't be surprised that the most popular Christmas song of all time was written by a Jew.  Next Monday, please come back and enjoy my annual post about some other popular Christmas songs and who they were written by.  You may be surprised.

After listening to White Christmas, I got to thinking.  Here in upstate New York, this was the weather forecast as of yesterday for this week.

We may well be dreaming, not of the normal white Christmas of a city on the edge of the snow belt of upstate New York, but of something we never thought we would ever see without heading for Florida.   Green lawns.  And maybe even some outdoor flowers blooming.

And now to prove I am no Irving Berlin, here is what I am dreaming of.
Binghamton, NY, December 13
I'm dreaming of a green Christmas
Just like the ones I never knew...
West side of Binghamton, NY, December 13

Where the flowers still bloom
And there is no gloom
As ice doesn't coat the streets.

Binghamton, December 13
I'm dreaming of a green Christmas
With each passing day like like fall.

May your trees all shine with a sheen,
And may all your Christmases be green.
at

7 comments:

  1. DeniseDecember 14, 2015 at 8:42 AM

    I'd be perfectly happy with a green Christmas too. Don't mind the cold, but hate the snow and ice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. songbird's crazy worldDecember 14, 2015 at 10:01 AM

    Yeah, I love it that Irving Berlin and Mel Torme, two nice Jewish boys, wrote some of the most famous Christmas songs....Holiday Inn is still one of my most favorite movies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. peppylady (Dora)December 14, 2015 at 3:01 PM

    Sure looks like Spring more then here in North Idaho. My son who lives in the southwest corner of Oregon...Had 2 inches of snow.
    Coffee is on

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shanaya TalesDecember 14, 2015 at 4:12 PM

    I love this song, and the movie. Watched it for the first time last year (during Christmas time) but even after so many years, it has a certain charm to it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dorothy BordersDecember 14, 2015 at 6:43 PM

    You may very well get your green Christmas this year!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Liz A.December 14, 2015 at 8:24 PM

    I'm hoping for a non-80-degree Christmas. Unlike the last two years.

    I enjoyed Holiday Inn. Your comment about Jews writing Christmas songs got me thinking about Neil Diamond's Christmas albums. (My mom's a huge fan.)

    ReplyDelete
  7. LindaDecember 14, 2015 at 10:21 PM

    I do like your version! But I think a little snow on Christmas day is nice. I'd like winter to begin a week before Christmas and end in mid-January.

    ReplyDelete

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