Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The History of Christmas Songs and Christmas Carols

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

Every year, sometime around the end of summer, it seems, you start hearing the very familiar songs of Christmas.  Every year, we hear the exact same songs, many of which have been passed down for centuries.  Where did these songs come from, and why do we call Christmas songs “carols”?  Learn more about Christmas carols and Christmas music and the origin of these songs on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every year, and it seems like it's getting earlier and earlier, you start hearing the very familiar songs of Christmas. And every year we hear the exact same songs, many of which have been passed down for centuries. But where do these songs come from? And why do we call Christmas songs carols? Learn more about Christmas carols, Christmas music, and the origin of these songs on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now.

Time travel with us every week on the Thurline podcast from NPR. Let's start this discussion of Christmas songs with the big question. Why are Christmas carols called carols? We don't have birthday carols or Halloween carols. So why do we use this word in association with Christmas music and nothing else? The word Carol dates back to the Middle Ages, and the origin of the word comes from Old French and the word Carol, spelled with an E. A Carol was a festive song that was usually accompanied by a dance. It was originally not necessarily a religious song, but rather something which was simply joyous.

Eventually, carols became more religious in nature and were usually sung in Latin. The person credited with popularizing Christmas songs was St. Francis. of Assisi. He adopted many of these carols for use in Christmas celebrations. After the Protestant Reformation, there was a movement to take songs in Latin and bring them to the common tongue of the people. Many of these songs became quite popular and would be sung outside of church when there were seasonable festivities. The first English language Christmas carols were documented in 1426 in a book by the English minister John Alde. Christmas carols were eventually used by groups known as wassellers who would go wosseling, which was going door to door singing, often in exchange for a drink,

usually mulled wine, from something known as a wassell bowl. Today, going door to door singing is just known as carolene, but it was originally known as wassling. Over time, as the Christmas season had the most parties and festivities, carols became associated with Christmas, even though in the past there were many other types of carols, including harvest carols and Easter carols. The oldest Christmas carols are ones that were originally in Latin, but were later translated. It isn't known what Christmas song is the oldest Christmas Carol that most people would probably recognize is the song Good King Wenceslas. The song first appeared in a book of carols in 1582. The modern canon of Christmas music that you're probably familiar with was actually slow to develop. The song Adestis Fidelis,

or O come all ye faithful in English, existed in its current form sometime around the mid-18th century, although the lyrics might date back as early as the 13th century. Modern Christmas music really began to pick up in the early 19th century with the publication of songbooks. Many of the first Christmas songs which were published were not necessarily written at that time. They're traditional songs that had been sung for centuries, but nobody knows who wrote them or when. William Sandy's 1833 book, Christmas Carol's Ancient and Modern, was the first documentation of several of these songs. And some of these include, God rest ye merry gentlemen. This song probably dates back to the 16th century at least.

The original title and lyrics of the song were actually, God Sit You Merry Gentleman. The song I Saw Three Ships was also a traditional song with the lyrics often improvised depending on the location where it was being sung. The current lyrics to the song speak of a ship sailing into Bethlehem, which is actually impossible because Bethlehem is a landlock city, and the nearest body of water is the Dead Sea. The song, Hark the Herald Angel Sin,

actually dates back to the early 18th century. But the original lyrics were, Hark how all the Welkin rings, glory to the king of kings. Welkin was a Middle English word that referred to the celestial sphere. The other well-known carol from Sandy's book was the first Noel. This was probably a song that originated in Cornwell several centuries earlier. In early modern English, Noel, spelled N-O-W-E-L, was a synonym for Christmas, which came from the French word, Noel. The French word comes from the phrase, Bon Nouvelle, which simply means good news. In the Cornish version, they would sing O'L-Well-O-L instead of No-Ell, No-L. Not all Christmas songs came from Britain. In 1818, the song Stilinacht was written and performed for the first

time in the small town of Orbanstorf-Bes-Alsberg, Austria. It was written and performed by Franz Gruber and Joseph Moore. The song was later translated into English as Silent Night. Silent Night is the most popular Christmas song in terms of the number of recordings that have been made. There have been almost 800 copyrighted recordings made since 1978, over twice as many as the next closest song, Joy to the World. And it also regularly sits on top of polls for people's favorite Christmas song. And by the way, Franz Gruber should not be confused with Hans Gruber, who is famous for a very different Christmas tradition. Likewise, in 1824 in Leipzig, Germany, a local teacher and musician by the name of Ernst Anschutz,

took a traditional song and created new lyrics to create the song O. Tannenbaum, known in English as Oh, Christmas Tree. Late 19th century Victorian England saw a revival in Christmas carols and caroling. The revival was due to a prohibition of Christmas celebrations in England in the 17th century by the Puritans. You probably may have noticed that many of the Christmas carols have rather antiquated language, and this is due to the period of the period of the period of the period of from which many of them were written or popularized. There were also familiar Christmas carols written in the United States during this period.

In 1868, O Little Town of Bethlehem was written by an American Episcopalian clergyman by the name of Phillips Brooks. A way in a manger was written in 1895 by the Irish-American composer William J. Kirkpatrick. And perhaps the most popular Christmas song of all was written in 1857 by James Lord Pierpont under the original title, The One Horse Open Slay.

We know the song, as Jingle Bells. Jingle Bells, if you pay close attention to the lyrics, has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, even though it is universally thought of as a Christmas song. It was believed to have been originally written for a Sunday school choir for Thanksgiving. The song is also considered to be very derivative and unoriginal by music historians, as it's really just a rehash of other similar slaying songs from the same period. Both Savannah, Georgia, and Medford, Massachusetts claimed to be the location where the song was written. In 1889, it was the first Christmas song ever recorded on an Edison wax cylinder. While many of the most beloved Christmas songs had already

been written before the start of the 20th century, there were still plenty of Christmas tunes to be made. There have been a lot of Christmas songs written over the last 100 years, but most of them have been forgettable. Only a handful have become part of the canon of regularly played Christmas songs. The most popular Christmas songs written in the 20th century were all pretty much written after the start of the Second World War. Probably the most popular modern Christmas song is Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. If you remember back to my episode on Santa Claus, the song was based on a story commissioned by the Montgomery Ward Department Store in 1939. A version recorded by Gene Autry went to the top of the charts on Christmas week

1949, and the song has become one that almost every child knows, and it redefined the story of Santa Claus. The song Silver Bells was released in 1950, and the first recording was sung by Bing Crosby. There was also a version recorded by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in the movie The Lemon Drop Kid from 195. The Christmas song, better known as Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, was written by Mel Tormay in 1945. However, the song is mostly associated with Nat King Cole, who recorded several different versions. He made recordings in 1946, 1953, and 1961,

with the last version being his most popular. The highest-ranking version of the song, however, came in 1999 when a recording by Christina Aguilera peaked at number 18 on the Billboard charts. The song The Little Drummer Boy was written in 1941 by American composer Catherine Kennecott Davis. The first recording of the song was actually in 1951

by the Von Trapp family, who were the family that was the song, subject of the movie The Sound of Music. With the advent of rock and roll, new Christmas songs are being written. Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms was released in 1957. It appeared in the Billboard Top 100 ten times over the last 65 years around Christmas. It first made the chart in 1958 and most recently appeared in 2022. In 1958, the Chimpmunk song was released under the artist Alvin and the Chimmunks. The composer was actually Ross Bagdasarian, who used the stage name of David Seville.

Believe it or not, the song won three Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Performance, best children's recording, and best engineered record. Almost every popular recording artist has recorded a Christmas album or at least a Christmas song because it can be really good business. And I want to end this episode with the one modern Christmas song that has completely dominated all others in terms of sales, chart rankings, and royalties. All I want for Christmas is you by Mariah Carey. Now, Mariah Carey is a very, very successful singer.

She has set tons of Billboard records, including having been at number one for a record 87 weeks in her career. However, out of all of her number one songs, nothing has approached the success of all I want for Christmas is you. It was released in 1994 and has been one of the most widely played Christmas songs over the last 30 years. It has hit number one in the charts in 25 countries. It first reached number one in the United States in 2019, having set the record for the longest time to reach number one for a song. And it was also the first Christmas song to reach number one in the U.S. since the Chipmunk song in 1958.

Since reaching number one in 2019, it has hit number one in every subsequent year thereafter, becoming the first single to hit number one in four different runs in four different years. The song has sold 16 million physical copies. as a single, which is rather impressive seeing that it occurred during a time when singles weren't really sold anymore. The top-selling single in history, by the way, is another Christmas song, White Christmas by Bing Crosby, which was released in 1942 and has sold 50 million copies. The most astounding thing about All I Want for Christmas is You is the amount of money it's made. As of 2021, the song has made over $106 million in worldwide royalties. It's estimated that the song

is currently making over $5 million per year, every year, simply from it being played over and over. All I Want for Christmas is You has become the best annual annuity in the history of popular music. It isn't just a song that was popular once. It's a song that's popular every single year. And amazingly, Mariah Carey didn't even want to record a Christmas song because she felt it was something that you did at the end of your career, not at the beginning. If you've ever seen the movie About a Boy, Hugh Grant plays an Amher,

playboy who is wealthy from the royalties of a popular Christmas song written by his father. And the premise of the character is not out of the question. Christmas music is an important part of Christmas. Some radio stations actually go to a 100% Christmas music format around this time of year. And you know Christmas is approaching when you start hearing Christmas music in stores. Christmas songs are so ingrained in our culture that I'm guessing most of you listening to this right now could probably at least hum the tunes to every single one of the songs and carols that I've mentioned in this episode. So the next time you hear a Christmas song, which very well may occur

in the next hour, give some thought to the history and big business behind Christmas music. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just want to thank everyone, including the show's producers, who support the show over on Patreon. If you'd like to support the show, just head over to patreon.com, which is currently the only place where you can get show merchandise. Also, if you to talk to other listeners about the show, head over to our Facebook group or Discord server, both of which have links in the show notes.