It was meant to be a funny song and there was nothing “racy” or improper about it – two people falling out of the sleigh and getting wet under snowy conditions. It was sung again at Christmas only because it had proven so popular at Thanksgiving. Pierpont originally wrote the song for his father’s Sunday school class for Thanksgiving – NOT for Christmas. When Decca brought Louis Armstrong into the studio to record some Christmas cheer, he opened the track “Christmas In New Orleans” with a small sample of “Jingle Bells.” Organ maestro Jimmy Smith cut a wonderfully funky instrumental version for his Verve Records’ album Christmas ’64. “Jingle Bells” has also appealed to countless leading jazz musicians, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Anita O’Day, Gene Krupa, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dave Brubeck, who all recorded their own versions. His 50s version was arranged by Gordon Jenkins, with a brilliant orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle. He followed this with another version in 1957 – the year the first Frank Sinatra Christmas special was recorded for television – for the Capitol Records album A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra. After a hit version by Bing Crosby And The Andrew Sisters, Sinatra decided to record his take on “Jingle Bells” in the 40s. But this is no “Silent Night.” Pierpont’s original has lyrics about a Miss Fanny Bright and the advice to “Go at it while you’re young/Take the girls tonight,” which don’t usually appear on modern hit versions of the song.ĭespite its strange origins, the song has become a global favorite. Yes, “dashing o’er the hills” is relatively quaint. Indeed, ardent churchgoers considered some of the words, with lesser-known verses that described attracting pretty girls with a fast sleigh, as too risqué to be sung in church. Though “Jingle Bells” became a Yuletide staple, there was no mention of Christmas in the original lyrics. He later joined the 1st Georgia Cavalry in the Civil War, penning songs in support of Confederacy soldiers fighting to defend slavery. He abandoned his two children in Boston to move to Savannah, Georgia, where he fathered several more children with a second wife. Shortly before writing the song, he had become a widower. (The song was originally about a crash.)įormer church organist Pierpont was a controversial, disreputable figure. The main line was inspired by the noise of jingle bells on the horses’ harnesses, which were used to try to help avoid collisions in the snow in the mid-19th century. The song’s current title only began to take hold two years later, when Pierpoint changed the name and copyrighted it as “Jingle Bells,” and it was sung at Thanksgiving services. It was first performed, in blackface, by Johnny Pell at Ordway minstrel hall in Massachusetts. But it started out in 1857 as a song called “One Horse Open Sleigh,” a slightly racy romance song about an unchaperoned ride. At the time, “Jingle Bells,” written by James Lord Pierpont, was considered to be a festive standard.
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