Hope Remembered: White Christmas
Bing Crosby, Irving Berlin, and the song that taught a country how to remember
Hope Remembered
Hope usually points us forward, towards a better tomorrow and a brighter future. We are hopeful because we believe that what we want will happen soon. But hope remembered is something different. Hope remembered is anchored backwards, towards a past filled with idealistic nostalgia. This hope reflects on what we used to have, on what we used to believe, and on what might have been. When we remember hope, we reminiscence about the “good ole days”, when everything was less chaotic and times were simpler. We remember our loved ones whom we’ve lost along the way, and we yearn to have just one more magical moment with them. The songwriter Irving Berlin experienced a profound loss on Christmas Day that permanently rewired his relationship with the holiday, and this subtle melancholy of hope remembered can be heard in Berlin’s immortal song, “White Christmas”.
“White Christmas”
Just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the world first heard “White Christmas” sung live by Bing Crosby on his radio show on Christmas Day in 1941. The master to the original 1942 recording of the song by Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers wore out from frequent use, and the song was re-recorded in 1947 and is the version we are most familiar with today. Interestingly, there is a forgotten verse at the beginning of the song, describing the bright, warm climate of Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, depicting a displaced soul longing for a wintry Christmas. The introductory stanza is typically excluded from recordings, including Crosby’s versions.
“White Christmas” also appeared in Holiday Inn in 1942 and in White Christmas in 1954, two films which Crosby starred in, and the song won the 1942 Academy Award for Best Original Song for Holiday Inn. Due to these popular holiday movies and the massive success of his recordings of “White Christmas”, Bing Crosby became the unofficial voice of Christmas, and his Christmas singles and albums continue to sell well and make the popular charts even today.
The Suspended Note
There is a subtle, yet dramatic moment in the very first phrase of the song, where the melody lands on a suspended note (a sharp 4) on the first syllable of Christmas, “Christ”, before resolving on the second syllable “mas”. For such a warm and seemingly easy-going melody, it may be surprising to hear a momentarily tense moment in the first line of the song. The chromatic note happens so quickly that the listener may not register the haunting friction which happens in less than a second. This F sharp note on “Christ”, which is an evocative note as far away from the song’s C major key as you can be, creates a restless, kinetic energy that needs to resolve to the G on “mas” as soon as possible. This splinter of dissonance demands an immediate resolution to the soothing balm of the dominant chord. It is a wonderful but quick moment of tension and release, and it adds a layer of understated complexity to the music.
Although this brief moment almost goes unnoticed, this suspended note is much more important than we first realize. Hope itself lives within this suspended note. As hope is the suspension before the eventual joy, this suspended note on “Christ” is the poignant embodiment of hope before the eventual satisfying resolution on “mas”. This haunting, chromatic note on the most important word of the holiday epitomizes the Hope Remembered theme, the deep longing we have for a past to which we can never quite return.
Immediately after the first mention of a “White Christmas”, the lyrics begin to reminisce about an idyllic wintry scene from a different place and time. Children and sleigh bells, two key themes which many songwriters will deeply explore in their own lyrics in Christmas songs to come, are also lovingly remembered here. There is a sense of quiet yearning in these lyrics, while the dreamer in the song expresses hope for a “White Christmas” for all of us. The idea of a “White Christmas” is so powerful because it is deeply personal. Each of us carries a nostalgic vision of our own perfect “White Christmas”, like an old, worn-out recording of our favorite home video. While the song is technically in a “happy” major key and appears benign on the surface, the multiple suspensions and descending chromatic lines throughout pull us towards an entirely different mood, which those who are at war can thoroughly relate to.
The Accidental War Anthem
“White Christmas” would begin to transform from a popular Christmas song to a national cultural monument in the fall of 1942, climbing to the top of the Hit Parade charts thanks to the millions of homesick U.S. soldiers overseas during World War II. Fighting in very un-festive environments, these soldiers overwhelmed the Armed Forces Radio Service with constant requests to play Crosby’s recording towards the end of 1942 and throughout the rest of the war. The song’s profound sense of longing perfectly epitomized the psychological state of the soldiers, and the vision of this “White Christmas” articulated the serene, picturesque homestead for which they were yearning for.
The popularity of the song only continued to grow during the wartime Christmases of 1943 and 1944, topping the charts for both years yet again thanks in part to the soldier’s never-ending affection for the tune. Bing Crosby frequently traveled overseas during the war to entertain and sing for the troops, and these soldiers would continually request “White Christmas” all throughout the year. “White Christmas” soon surpassed Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” in sales becoming his most popular song ever, and “White Christmas” eventually became the best-selling Christmas song of all time.
Bing’s 1947 Recording
The instrumental arrangement of Crosby’s 1947 recording has helped define the sound of Christmas for future generations, with light, fluttering flutes, warm violins full of vibrato, and a celesta which adds a wonderful, glistening sparkle. The warm, lush orchestration creates a comfy ambience, as if we are settled down and relaxing by the fireplace. The music’s tempo strolls at a steady, relaxed pace, with plenty of time to soak in the nostalgia of better days gone by.
“White Christmas” is also an absolute masterpiece in economic songwriting, as it only takes fifty-four words and sixty-seven notes to tell this holiday short story, which is repeated once to fill out the 3 minutes and 3 seconds of Crosby’s 1947 recording. After Bing sings the verse the first time through, the Ken Darby Singers lead the beginning of the repeated verse in a wait-like caroling manner, with Bing accompanying them with a lighthearted, gleeful whistle, until he once more takes the vocal lead for the climatic ending. The massive success of this song forever changed the popularity of Christmas music, and it ushered in a new wave of musical nostalgia for the holidays, with hits such as “The Christmas Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
Berlin’s Tragic Loss
The melancholy which silently pervades throughout the song, is also reflected in the somber history of Irving Berlin’s relationship with Christmas. As a Russian-Jewish immigrant, Irving Berlin’s relationship with the holiday was already complicated. However, on Christmas Day in 1928, Berlin experienced the most devastating loss a parent can ever endure. Berlin’s infant son, Irving Berlin Jr., tragically died on Christmas Day in 1928 (likely of sudden infant death syndrome), just a few weeks after being born. The death of his baby boy haunted Berlin for the rest of his life, and he would regularly put flowers on Irving Berlin Jr.’s grave on Christmas Day as a memorial to his lost son.
Hope remembered became Berlin remembered.
Sources and Further Reading
White Christmas: The Story of an American Song by Jody Rosen. The definitive biography of the song itself.
Irving Berlin: New York Genius -by James Kaplan. A recent biography framed through the lens of New York and the Jewish American experience.
Sleigh Rides, Jingle Bells, & Silent Nights: A Cultural History of American Christmas Songs by Ronald D. Lankford Jr. A history of American Christmas music told through the songs themselves.
Merry Christmas! Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday by Karal Ann Marling. The cultural history of how America made Christmas what it is.
Listen Along - Recommended Playlist
Listen to Bing’s 1947 and 1942 “White Christmas” recordings back to back, a recording from the Carpenters with the missing first verse, along with “White Christmas” recordings from several other artists.