History Of ‘Jingle Bells’

December 2, 2022

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyRT1cDmanY

One of the most popular Christmas songs is Jingle Bells, and the atmosphere will be filled with delight again as December started yesterday.

‘Jingle Bells’ is arguably the Christmas song one learns to sing in school and probably best in carol service. The song was composed by James Lord Pierpont who was a native of Medford, Massachusetts, US and made its debut in 1850.

Pierpont, an American songwriter and organist wrote the song to commemorate the town’s annual sleigh races around Thanksgiving.

Historians said he published the song in 1857 under “One Horse Open Sleigh.” It had three verses in addition to the one typically sung today.

The song details a young couple who are riding and tipping their sleigh in a snowdrift. As its popularity increased, the song became known as “Jingle Bells,” referring to the jolly refrain.

It was first recorded in 1889 on an Edison cylinder. While that recording no longer exists, the second one from 1898 can still be found online.

Since then, artists such as Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, (and more recently Gwen Stefani and Lauren Daigle) have all put their signature spins on the ubiquitous tune.This among other reasons is why ‘Jingle Bells’ remains the most popular among all the Christmas songs.

In 1965, “Jingle Bells” became the first song broadcast from space when the astronauts aboard Gemini 6 decided to play a prank on Mission Control and performed the song on a harmonica and actual jingle bells they had smuggled on board.

Christmas is just around the corner. This year, instead of jumping into endless political conversations at the dinner table, try throwing some Christmas knowledge at your family. The surprising history of one of America’s most beloved Christmas songs, “Jingle Bells,” may be enough to draw them in.

‘Jingle Bells’ was written by James Lord Pierpont. His nephew is J.P. Morgan. Yes, that J.P. Morgan.According to findings by author and historian Christopher Klein, Pierpont’s older sister, Juliet Pierpont, married millionaire Junius Spencer Morgan. Their son, John Pierpont Morgan, went on to start one of the largest financial institutions in the world.

Jingle Bells’ was not meant to be a Christmas song
The song was actually first performed at a Thanksgiving church service and was never intended to be a Christmas staple, according to Klein. If you listen carefully to the lyrics, you will notice there is actually no mention of Christmas, Thanksgiving or any holiday, for that matter.

The song became associated with Christmas only decades after it was performed on September 15, 1857, on Washington Street in Boston, according to a researcher at Boston University, Kyna Hamill.

The song’s birthplace is contested

There are two historical plaques in two cities, each claiming to be the birthplace of Pierpont’s “Jingle Bells.”

A plaque in Medford, Massachusetts, suggests Pierpont wrote the song in 1850 while sitting in a tavern watching sleigh races on Salem Street. This is disputed by Hamill’s research, which found Pierpont couldn’t have written the song in 1850 because he was chasing cash in California during the Gold Rush.

There’s also a plaque in Savannah, Georgia, where people insist Pierpont wrote the song in late 1857 before leading the first “Jingle Bells” sing-along in a local church.

Hamill says Pierpont most likely wrote the song in a rooming house not far from where he lived in downtown Boston in 1857.

‘Jingle Bells’ was the first song broadcast from space

Ten days before Christmas 1965, astronauts Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford, orbiting aboard Gemini 6, met Gemini 7, piloted by Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. When it was time to reenter Earth’s atmosphere, on December 16, Schirra and Stafford playfully reported to Mission Control some sort of UFO.

“We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit…. Looks like he might be going to re-enter soon…. You just might let me pick up that thing…. I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit.”

Ground controllers then began to hear the strains of none other than “Jingle Bells,” being played by the astronauts on a harmonica backed by miniature sleigh bells. Today, those bells and harmonica are on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

The original name of the song was ‘One Horse Open Sleigh’

Originally named “One Horse Open Sleigh” when written in 1857, Pierpont later copyrighted it as “Jingle Bells, or the One Horse Open Sleigh.”

-1). Dashing through the snow, In a one-horse open sleigh
O’er the fields we go, Laughing all the way
Bells on bobtails ring, Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride & sing, A sleighing song tonight

CHORUS / BRIDGE / REFRAIN.
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way,
Oh, what fun it is to ride, In a one-horse open sleigh,
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way,
Oh, what fun it is to ride, In a one-horse open sleigh,

-2). A day or two ago, I thought I’d take a ride,
And soon, Miss Fanny Bright was seated by my side,
The horse was lean & lank, Misfortune seemed his lot
He got into a drifted bank, And then we got upsot

-3). A day or two ago, The story I must tell,
I went out on the snow, And on my back I fell,
A gent was riding by, In a one-horse open sleigh
He laughed as there I sprawling lie, But quickly drove away.

-4). Now the ground is white, Go it while you’re young,
Take the girls tonight, And sing this sleighing song,
Just get a bobtailed bay, Two-forty as its speed,
Hitch him to an open sleigh, And crack, you’ll take the lead.