33
Jingle Bells
53 Points, 3 Lists, Highest Vote: #11 Torzelbaum
by: James Lord Pierpont (Composer/lyricist)
Year of Release: 1857
Type:
Jingle Bells, originally titled One Horse Open Sleigh, was a Christmas song written by James Lord Pierpont in 1857 in Boston. The song was likely originally written as a drinking song (and a Thanksgiving song) rather than a Christmas song and, in one of the more unpleasant elements of this post…
Pierpont, a supporter of the Confederacy, dedicated the song to "John P. Ordway, Esq.", an organizer of a blackface minstrel troupe called "Ordway's Aeolians". … The song was first performed on September 15, 1857, at Ordway Hall in Boston by blackface minstrel performer Johnny Pell.
Yikes. Anyway, there’s dispute over where the song was originally written and exactly what year, with some places in Boston claiming it as the birthplace of the song. The song also has a double meaning of upsot (which I admit I’m not sure I entirely get), with the implication of “hey, we are all alone, in the woods/field, unchaperoned… let’s get down.” The earliest actual recording by Will Lyle is almost certainly lost forever but there’s surviving audio of the Edison Male Quartette for a medley called Sleigh Ride Party from 1898. The song is one of the, if not THE, first song broadcast from space. The song has also been parodied many times, most famously as “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells”, which also has some weirdly problematic origins.
https://www.cracked.com/blog/the-secret-true-history-jingle-bells-batman-smells
The history may be a bit tainted, I think it’s a song that thankfully moved beyond it’s unpleasant origins to become a classic. It’s a jaunty song about a joyful, thrilling joy ride! I feel like even when you slow this song down a bit, it only slows down so much because it is a song that feels like it needs to be at the pace of a horse ride (there are definitely counter examples like the John Denver version which isn’t bad but it does feel off from the appeal of the song, at least to me), and about the pleasure of that sensation and sounds of it. Jingle Bells isn’t the top song on the list but, and I’m open to an argument on this, I feel like it is THE most famous of the Christmas songs. Simple, clean and effective, that’s what it is.
Other Covers
Here’s an odd one
There was an era of music where this was allowed to happen. We are all guilty
Christmas Creep take
Weirdly, no one voted for Batman smelling. I assumed there would be at least one for that. It even gets sung on the BATMAN CARTOON!