The 1942 original was damaged due to overuse at the time. The version most often heard today, is the 1947 re-recording. A re-release in 1977 (the year of Crosby's death), it reached number five. In the UK, the song was released before the first chart in 1952. Later re-released, it returned to number one in 19. In 1942 alone, the song spent 11 weeks on top of the Billboard charts.

The Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for the song. It remained in that position until well into 1943, and it resonated strongly with listeners during World War II.Ī few weeks after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Crosby introduced the song on a Christmas Day broadcast. The song initially performed poorly, but by the end of October 1942, it topped the Your Hit Parade chart in the US. 'White Christmas' was not deemed to be the main hit from the film, and instead the song 'Be Careful, It's My Heart', played during the Valentine's Day section of the film, was intended to be a bigger hit.

When Bing Crosby first heard Berlin play the song in 1941 at the first rehearsals, he did not immediately recognise its full potential.Ĭrosby simply said: 'I don't think we have any problems with that one, Irving.' He found that writing a song about Christmas was difficult, due to his Jewish upbringing. Berlin's next assignment for Paramount Pictures was to write a song about each of the major holidays of the year, which would become 1942's Holiday Inn. He hummed the melody to Fred Astaire and the film's director Mark Sandrich as a potential song for a future Astaire-Ginger Rogers film.Īstaire loved the tune, but Sandrich passed on it. I just wrote the best song I've ever written-heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!' Read more: The 30 greatest Christmas songs everĪnother story goes that it conceived by Berlin on the set of the film Top Hat in 1935. He is said to have his secretary one night: 'Grab your pen and take down this song. One story goes that he wrote it in 1940, in sunny La Quinta, California, while staying at the La Quinta Hotel. It is not known exactly when and where Berlin wrote the song.

Songwriter Irving Berlin wrote the song while reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. It's one of the most famous songs of all time, and the Christmas song which all since have been judged against.īut who wrote the song and what inspired it? Here's all the big facts:

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