HOLIDAY MUSIC 'White Christmas' remains a fixture

Bing Crosby's recording was the best-selling single until 1998.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Chances are you've heard "White Christmas" this holiday season -- a lot. The Irving Berlin classic, as first performed by Bing Crosby and covered by countless others, is literally the ghost of Christmas past.
"'White Christmas' is the biggest pop tune of all time, the top-selling and most frequently recorded song: the hit of hits," says author Jody Rosen, who wrote the book "White Christmas: The Story of an American Song."
"It is a quintessentially American song that the world has embraced," Rosen says.
Before "White Christmas," the holidays meant traditional carols and religious hymns. After it, secular tunes became part of the fiber of popular culture.
Rosen estimates 125 million copies of the three-minute song have been sold since it was first recorded in 1942.
"Is there another song that Kenny G, Peggy Lee, Mantovani, Odetta, Loretta Lynn, the Flaming Lips, the Edwin Hawkins Singers and the Backstreet Boys have in common?" writes Rosen. "What other tune links Destiny's Child, The Three Tenors and Alvin and the Chipmunks; Perry Como, Garth Brooks and Stiff Little Fingers; the Reverend James Cleveland, Doris Day and Kiss?"
Pivotal song
And Crosby's performance marks a turning point in the music industry.
"It marks the moment when performers supplant songwriters as the central creative forces at least in mainstream American pop music," he told NPR in 2002. "After the success of 'White Christmas,' records become the primary means of disseminating pop music, and they replace sheet music. And the emphasis shifts to charismatic performances recorded for all time and preserved on records.
"In a way 'White Christmas' is both the pinnacle of the Tin Pan Alley era and its swan song, because shortly after 'White Christmas,' you have Frank Sinatra and then very quickly you have Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry and Little Richard, and we're getting into the rock era."
Interesting tidbits
Some facts about the "hit of hits":
UBing Crosby first performed "White Christmas" on Dec. 25, 1941, on NBC's Kraft Music Hall radio show.
U Crosby first recorded the song for Decca on May 29, 1942. He rerecorded it March 19, 1947, as a result of damage to the 1942 master from frequent use. As in 1942, Crosby was joined in the studio by the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers.
UThe song was featured in two films: "Holiday Inn" in 1942 (for which it collected the Academy Award for best song) and 12 years later in "White Christmas."
UCrosby's single sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and was recognized as the best-selling single in any music category until 1998 when Elton John's tribute to Princess Diana, "Candle in the Wind," overtook it.
UIrving Berlin so hated Elvis Presley's cover of "White Christmas" that he launched a fierce (and fruitless) campaign to ban Presley's recording.
UThe song marked the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. As North Vietnamese forces surrounded Saigon, a plan to evacuate the remaining Americans and some South Vietnamese was set in motion by a radio announcement that the temperature in Saigon was "105 degrees and rising," which was followed by a recording of "White Christmas."
UYou've never heard some of its original lyrics. Bing Crosby's record producer Jack Kapp thought this opening verse would be meaningless outside of the film "Holiday Inn." Crosby agreed, and didn't record these lyrics that explain the song's origin:
"The sun is shining/The grass is green/The orange and palm trees sway./I've never seen such a day/In Beverly Hills, L.A./But it's December the 24th/And I am longing to be up North."