Did Bing Crosby Ever Get Sick of Singing ‘White Christmas?’
The holiday song “White Christmas” is one of the most unforgettable songs of the holiday season. Bing Crosby made it iconic, but did he ever get sick of singing “White Christmas?”
Bing Crosby made ‘White Christmas’ a hit in 1942, but did he get sick of singing it?
The song “White Christmas” was made famous by Bing Crosby in the 1942 Christmas movie Holiday Inn. The “White Christmas” song was adapted twelve years later into a full-length film starring Crosby and Danny Kaye.
The song and film became Crosby’s calling card, despite many other hits synonymous with the singer throughout his career. But in a 1977 interview with Barbara Walters, Crosby revealed his real feelings about the holiday hit.
Walters asked Crosby, “Are you sick of ‘White Christmas?'” He replied, “No, no, I could never be sick of it. I just fear that people will be sick of it.”
Subsequently, Crosby revealed he did not want to displease “White Christmas” songwriter Irving Berlin. “Once in a while, they’ll have a parody on ‘White Christmas.’ And I wouldn’t do it because I know that would offend Irving Berlin. He wouldn’t like to have that song parodied or made into a comedy routine.”
The one reason ‘White Christmas’ was so successful
What made “White Christmas” a success was its inclusion in the playlist of Armed Forces Radio, reported NPR. Reportedly, the tune touched the hearts of American GIs spending their first Christmas overseas during WWII.
“I sang it many times in Europe in the field for soldiers, and they’d holler for it. They’d demand it. When I’d sing it, they’d all cry,” Bing Crosby said of the song.
“It’s nostalgic, and it’s poignant, you know, particularly during the war years. So many young people were away, and they’d hear this song. And it would happen to be that time of the year; it would affect them.”
Why did ‘White Christmas’ resonate with moviegoers and music lovers?
“White Christmas” is a song penned by legendary songwriter Irving Berlin. It is a tune that reminisces about Christmas in an old-fashioned setting.
During the film Holiday Inn, Bing Crosby’s character is down on his luck on Christmas Eve. He dreams of a white Christmas, thus the song’s inclusion in the film.
Berlin penned the tune in late 1939 or early 1940. It piggybacked on the emotions Americans felt on the heels of the Great Depression and the cusp of World War II.
By the time Holiday Inn and “White Christmas'” premiered in 1942, the U.S. had joined the war. However, the song had a deeper meaning to Berlin, who wrote it to deal with personal tragedy.
Per Smithsonian, Berlin’s feelings about the holiday were ambivalent. He suffered a tragedy on Christmas Day in 1928 when his 3-week-old son, Irving Berlin Jr., died. Every Christmas thereafter, he and his wife visited his son’s grave.
“The kind of deep secret of the song may be that it was Berlin responding in some way to his melancholy about the death of his son,” said author Jody Rosen to NPR. I think that’s one of the reasons why people keep responding to it because our feelings over the holiday season are ambivalent.”
“White Christmas” would win an Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th annual ceremony.
