Post by erik on Dec 18, 2021 14:33:41 GMT -5
One of the holiday season's perennial rock and roll favorites is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
JINGLE BELL ROCK (Bobby Helms; Decca; 1957)—Up until about 1957, when one thought of Christmas songs, one usually thought about the songs of a totally different generation of singers, such as Frank Sinatra, and, of course, Bing Crosby (“Der Bingle”) with his 1943 classic “White Christmas”. But as with everything else in American popular music in the 1950’s, the advent of rock and roll changed everything; and while Crosby and Sinatra never really went out of style during the Yuletide season, a new generation was making their mark. Elvis, of course, was the big one, with his 1957 Christmas album becoming by far the biggest selling album of its kind in history (at twenty-five million copies, it still held that mark in 2021). But there was also Bobby Helms, who managed to make his mark on the holiday season in a big way. Although thought of, like a lot of early white rockabilly stars (including Elvis), as a country artist, he nevertheless hit it big with the early rock ballad “My Special Angel” during the summer of 1957 (it became a hit a second time around in a version by The Vogues in 1968). And then there was the perennial holiday smash “Jingle Bell Rock”. Written by Joe Beal and Jim Boothe, the song was recorded by Helms at Decca Records’ Nashville home office in early October 1957, and then rush-released just a few weeks after that. With organ work by Hank Garland and backing vocal work by the Anita Kerr Singers, “Jingle Bell Rock” managed to hit #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #13 on the C&W singles chart right in time for Christmas; and likely, it would have gone higher if not for the overall domination of all the singles charts (and the Top 200 Album Chart) by Elvis. The song endured even beyond its initial Christmas run in ’57, getting recordings over successive decades by artists as diverse as Chubby Checker and Bobby Rydell (in 1961); Brenda Lee; Ariana Grande; and, in 1983, Daryl Hall and John Oates (the latter is the one most heard on the radio during the holiday season apart from Helms’ original 1957 recording).
JINGLE BELL ROCK (Bobby Helms; Decca; 1957)—Up until about 1957, when one thought of Christmas songs, one usually thought about the songs of a totally different generation of singers, such as Frank Sinatra, and, of course, Bing Crosby (“Der Bingle”) with his 1943 classic “White Christmas”. But as with everything else in American popular music in the 1950’s, the advent of rock and roll changed everything; and while Crosby and Sinatra never really went out of style during the Yuletide season, a new generation was making their mark. Elvis, of course, was the big one, with his 1957 Christmas album becoming by far the biggest selling album of its kind in history (at twenty-five million copies, it still held that mark in 2021). But there was also Bobby Helms, who managed to make his mark on the holiday season in a big way. Although thought of, like a lot of early white rockabilly stars (including Elvis), as a country artist, he nevertheless hit it big with the early rock ballad “My Special Angel” during the summer of 1957 (it became a hit a second time around in a version by The Vogues in 1968). And then there was the perennial holiday smash “Jingle Bell Rock”. Written by Joe Beal and Jim Boothe, the song was recorded by Helms at Decca Records’ Nashville home office in early October 1957, and then rush-released just a few weeks after that. With organ work by Hank Garland and backing vocal work by the Anita Kerr Singers, “Jingle Bell Rock” managed to hit #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #13 on the C&W singles chart right in time for Christmas; and likely, it would have gone higher if not for the overall domination of all the singles charts (and the Top 200 Album Chart) by Elvis. The song endured even beyond its initial Christmas run in ’57, getting recordings over successive decades by artists as diverse as Chubby Checker and Bobby Rydell (in 1961); Brenda Lee; Ariana Grande; and, in 1983, Daryl Hall and John Oates (the latter is the one most heard on the radio during the holiday season apart from Helms’ original 1957 recording).