White Christmas: The Story of a Song
Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it's the best song anybody ever wrote. Irving Berlin, 1942A biography of the single most important record in the history of popular musicA vividly written narrative about the world's best-loved popular song, White Christmas provides both the story behind the making of Irving Berlin's most memorable tune and a rich cultural history of the America that embraced it.When Irving Berlin first conceived the song "White Christmas", he envisioned it as "a throwaway" – a satirical novelty number for a vaudeville-style stage review. By the time Bing Crosby introduced the song to the world in the winter of 1942, it was a yuletide ballad that would become the world's all-time top-selling and most frequently recorded song. Berlin, the Russian-Jewish immigrant who became America's greatest pop troubadour, had written his magnum opus – what one commentator has called a "holiday Moby-Dick" – a timeless song that resonates with some of the deepest strains in American culture: yearning for an idealised New England past, belief in the magic of the "merry and bright" Christmas season, longing for the sanctuaries of home and hearth. Today the song endures not just as an icon of the national Christmas celebration but as the artistic and commercial peak of the golden age of popular song arising from the Jewish-American assimilation, and a symbol of the values and strivings of the World War II generation.‘White Christmas’ is both a period page-turner, tracing the story of the song's making amid the vibrant world of mid-century Broadway and Hollywood, and a chronicle of the song's legacy through today, when Berlin's masterpiece endures as a secular hymn.
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This paperback edition published in 2003
First published in Great Britain in 2002
Copyright © Jody Rosen 2002
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Source ISBN: 9781841156323
Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2017 ISBN: 9780008245917
Version: 2017–02-17
Permissions Acknowledgments
“Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” Copyright © 1911 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“An Old-Fashioned Tune Is Always New,” copyright © 1939 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. “Be Careful, It’s My Heart,” copyright © 1941, 1942 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. “God Bless America,” copyright © 1938, 1939 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed 1965, 1966 by Irving Berlin. Copyright assigned to the Trustees of the God Bless America Fund. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. “I’ve Written Another Song,” copyright © 2001 by The Estate of Irving Berlin. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“It’s in Three Acts Instead of the Usual Two,” copyright © 2001 by The Estate of Irving Berlin. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. “Let Me Sing and I’m Happy,” copyright © 1928, 1929 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. “Let’s All Be Americans Now,” copyright © 1917 by Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co. Copyright renewed and assigned to Irving Berlin. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” copyright © 1935, 1936 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. “Marie from Sunny Italy” by Irving Berlin. Copyright © 1907 Jos. W. Stern & Company. Copyright renewed and assigned to Irving Berlin. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“No Strings (I’m Fancy Free),” copyright © 1935 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“Of All the Tin Pan Alley Greats,” copyright © 2001 by The Estate of Irving Berlin. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,” copyright © 1918 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed. Copyright assigned to the Trustees of the God Bless America Fund. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“Old Men,” copyright © 2001 by The Estate of Irving Berlin. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“Old Songs,” copyright © 2001 by The Estate of Irving Berlin. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“Santa Claus—A Syncopated Christmas Song,” copyright © 2001 by The Estate of Irving Berlin. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“Top Hat, White Tie and Tails,” copyright © 1935 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“What Is a War Song?” copyright © 2001 by the Trustees of the God Bless America Fund. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
“When This Crazy World Is Sane Again,” copyright © 1941 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. “White Christmas,” copyright © 1940, 1942 by Irving Berlin. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
To my parents
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know,
