CHRISTMAS is almost here and everywhere you go, festive tunes are playing.
One song in particular has graced airwaves at this time of year for over eight decades.
Bing Crosby’s rendition of White Christmas was first performed live on Christmas Day, 1941.
It was penned by Irving Berlin for the festive flick Holiday Inn, which was released the following year.
Written by a Jewish immigrant to the US, the tune became one of the first successful secular festive songs.
It also shaped pop culture’s views of “home and hearth” over the festive period, leading to an influx in both Christmas songs and movies, with Crosby even starring in a box office hit of the same name in 1954.
With over 50 million copies sold, the record is the best-selling single of all time.
To this day, White Christmas generates significant royalties for Crosby’s estate, decades after his passing in 1977.
Exactly 84 years after its release, the song is estimated to take in approximately £328,000 in the UK alone.
Despite the tune’s huge success over the years, Crosby dismissed it, saying “a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have bintanog it successfully”.
The version heard day was re-recorded by Crosby in 1947, after the 1942 master was damaged due to frequent use.
White Christmas has also been associated with World War II, with Crosby performing it live for the first time just weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
He went on to visit American troops in Northern France in December, 1944, singing the hit just days before the Battle of the Bulge took place.
The song’s royalties still top more recent festive hits such as Wizzard’s I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day (£180,000), Chris Rea’s Driving Home for Christmas (£200,000), Jona Lewie’s Stop the Cavalry (£120,000), Shakin Stevens’ Merry Christmas Everyone (£140,000), and East 17’s Stay Another Day (£97,000).
