What would Christmas be without Bing Crosby singing 'White Christmas'?   If you look in the Guinness Book of World Records, you'll see that the Bing Crosby version of that song is the best-selling single of ALL time.   An estimated 50 million copies have been sold world-wide, and all other versions of the song have estimated sales of over 100 million copies.   I wonder what the number would be, if one were to calculate each one of those copies being played several times each, just how many times it has ever been played?  I don't think it would be possible to figure that out, but it for sure would be a huge number!

Irving Berlin wrote the song, and although there are some disagreements as to its birthplace and origin, most believe it was written in 1940.  The first performance of the song was on Christmas day, 1941 by Bing Crosby. Crosby downplayed his role in the success of the song, but he introduced it to the world.   It was BIG, and has stood the test of time for many Christmases, and even landed in the Guinness Book.   Here is the original 1942 Bing recording of the song:

Here is an ancient interview with Bing.

Michael Buble cites Bing Crosby as his first experience with his musical passion.  He often was heard by his family as a child singing along with Bing, or even just singing Bing on his own.

The song has actually been the most recorded song ever, according to ASCAP, dating back to 2009.   I wonder if Irving Berlin knew how big the song he wrote would become over the years?  Berlin wrote hundreds of songs, some say upwards of 1500, however he may have written even more that were not published.   He scored so many hits during his 60 year career, influenced many artists and entertainers, and obtained several awards.

Here is a 'Rare' TV appearance of Irving Berlin, in which he plays the piano he wrote his very first hit on.

Do you suppose when Irving Berlin were done composing this song, that he thought to himself, "Yeah, That's A Hit!" ?

Here in SE MN we don't often have to dream of a white Christmas, because more often than not, we do see the white Christmases.   I can only remember a handful of them that have been brown during my short time on this planet.    I have friends and family that live in the southern U.S. and they all say, it just would be so nice for it to snow on Christmas.   I personally am not fond of winter, but for some reason I still live here in my home area, and put up with it year after year after year.   In my humble opinion, it would be nice for it to snow only on Christmas day, and then, just not snow before or after that.

Do you think we are going to have a white Christmas this year?

 

 

 

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