The year was 1893. The place it began was in Western Siberia in the little Jewish village of Tuymen. Israel Beilin was just 7 years old and one of the 8 Beilin children when the ethnic cleansing began. His family fled to New York to escape the Russian persecution. Even though his father became the Cantor in the synagogue, they were not well off financially and lived in a poor part of New York City.

Three years after they arrived, Israel Bielin’s father died, and the family endured even more hardship. Maybe it was the difficult times, but for whatever reason, Israel became known as a troublemaker. In his early teens, he ran away from home and lived on the streets, he was homeless. His clothes were ragged. He started singing in a Chinese restaurant. The songs were vaudeville type: bawdy and not very nice. His father would have been embarrassed had he been living.

In 1906, he landed a job at the upscale and fashionable Pelham Café. He was a waiter but sang little ditties as he served expresso to the customers. Those customers adored the young man. He had no musical education. He could not read or write musical notes. The clientele nevertheless adored him and his singing. He composed “Marie from Sunny Italy” and got it published.

The publisher of “Marie from Sunny Italy” was quite drunk when he agreed to publish the song. He was so drunk he got a few letters of the song writer’s name mixed up and instead of Beilin, the song was published as written by Berlin – Irving Berlin. From that time forward, that was the name that young man used: Irving Berlin.

It’s an incredible beginning of one of the 20th century’s greatest songwriters. It was Irving Berlin who wrote “God Bless America”.

Fast forward to 1942. Berlin was by 1942, one of the most recognized song writers. He has his own publishing company and his own music theater. He wrote the score for the box office hit “Holiday Inn”. He gets Bing Crosby to sing the musical numbers. Crosby released a single on a vinyl 78 rpm record.

October 1942, World War II is raging overseas. The Bing Crosby record is sent as part of the care packages sent to the soldiers overseas. The soldiers go wild over the song on the B-side of the record. The B-side is supposed to be the lesser of the two songs on a single record. Not this time. The soldiers write home and tell their families in America you have to go buy this record. And they do.

The record On the B side (expected to be the less popular song) is “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”. It sold millions of records and soared to the top of the charts.

Before to 1942, there were some religious Christmas songs and a few non-religious ones like “Jingle Bells” but no one wanted to record songs that would only sell for a few weeks of the year. There did not seem to be a market. “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” changed that.

In 1943 Jewish song writers Walter Kent and Kim Gannon enlisted Bing Crosby to sing their composition “I’ll be Home For Christmas” and that soared to the top of the charts.

In 1944 Judy Garland was playing in the Broadway Musical, “Meet Me in St. Louis” sang and recorded the chart buster “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. The story of the musical was about unhappy girls who wanted to move to New York City.

  • Original lyrics:
    • Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
    • It may be your last
    • Next year we may be living in the past
    • Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
    • Pop that champagne cork
    • Next year we may be living in New York

 

Garland refused to sing those words, they were so negative so the lyrics were changed.

 

  • Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
  • It may be your last
  • Let your heart be light
  • From now on our troubles will be out of sight

 

By 1945 World War II was over, and the GIs had come home to celebrate in the United States. They were young, in their 20s and even into their 30s. It was the beginning of the Baby Boomer generation.

 

“I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” had shown that Christmas songs would sell. Between 1945 and 1959 as the Baby Boomers grew up almost all of the best-selling Christmas songs were written. Among them:

  • Let it Snow
  • Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
  • Sleigh Ride
  • Silver Bells
  • Frosty The Snowman
  • It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
  • I Saw Momma Kissing Santa Claus
  • Here Comes Santa Claus
  • Santa Baby
  • 12 Days of Christmas
  • All I Want for Christmas Is My 2 front teeth
  • Rudolph Red Nosed Reindeer (1949)
  • Blue Christmas
  • Little Drummer Boy

             Wishing you and yours a most wonderful Holiday Season!