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Well, this track provided quite a bit of a mystery to the many elves who work here at FaLaLaLaLa.

Over the past few years, we’ve gotten a lot of requests for help in finding certain songs that people remember from their youths.  Some are easy.  Others are obscure and take quite a bit of sleuthing.  This is especially true of older releases, especially ones that predate the LP era.  This is one of those.

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Like many traditional songs that are heard around the holidays, "Sleigh Ride", a song that evokes images of gliding along a snowy trail, was not written in the winter.  And like even more "Christmas songs", it was not originally intended to be heard only at Christmas.

Leroy Anderson, hired as an organist and then composer and arranger for Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, was busy digging trenches on the property of his summer home in Woodbury, Connecticut, in 1946, when an idea for an orchestral piece came to him.  One would not think that looking for buried pipes for spring water in a July heat wave could have anything to do with a classic holiday tune, but that’s what separates genius from the rest of us.

Not even bothering to put on his shirt, Anderson took a break from his digging and went into the house to write out some notes about his new idea.  Although he liked the tune that came to him then, he knew that it was not strong enough by itself to carry an entire composition.  He refined the piece and added a main tune to introduce it (section "A") and a closing section, making the one he came up with on that July day the middle section (section "C", which would eventually begin with the lyrics "There’s a birthday party at the home of Farmer Gray").  "Sleigh Ride" would develop over the course of more than a year as Anderson continued to refine it.

Anderson’s idea was that this new piece would not be a song so much as an orchestral arrangement that musically depicts a sleigh ride.  Once he had the idea of sleigh bells as a motif, he incorporated layers of motifs into his "pictorial thing", much like an artist does on a canvas.  As he described to PBS, "The point of a number like ‘Sleigh Ride’, that you can call a descriptive piece, or pictorial, is that you have to start with the idea of the rhythm, and whatever it is first.  And in this case, it’s the rhythm of the sleigh bells, and these sleigh bells go ‘chink-chink-chink’…  That’s the regular rhythm of sleigh bells, so, having done that, it’s necessary to build music around that rhythm.  And of course, sleigh bells are repetitious:  there’s this  ‘bump-bump-bump-bump-bump’.  And, having done that, it was very natural then to write a melody that was not only in the same rhythm, but had the same repeated notes, like [plays the main tune on the piano].  And in the middle section it goes [plays section 'C' on the piano].  There are repeated notes again, you see.  And, of course, the entire rhythm of the thing must be in that ‘chink-chink-chink-chink’.  That must keep up, all the way through."

Besides having a wonderful melody, part of what makes "Sleigh Ride" special is its imaginative use of percussion and musical sound effects that transport the listener into Anderson’s snowy world.  The main tune, with which "Sleigh Ride" begins and ends, is typically punctuated with the jingling of sleigh bells.  One can practically envision snow piled among trees whizzing by during section "C":  the clop-clop-clopping of percussion mimics the sound of horses’ hooves, and dramatic pauses are followed by the crack of a whip.  At the very end of the song, another pause is followed by a trumpet that simulates the whinny of a horse.  According to "Leroy Anderson: A Bio-Bibliography" by Burgess Speed, Eleanor Anderson, and Steve Metcalf, "at first some trumpeters had a hard time with it, since it calls for a rather tricky half-valve glissando.  But trumpet players the world over now are obliged to perfect it, since sooner or later, they know they’ll be called upon to produce it."

Anderson completed his new 3-minute-long orchestra piece on February 10, 1948, and he soon presented it to Arthur Fiedler.  "Sleigh Ride" made its debut as an extra song during a May 4, 1948 Boston Pops concert conducted by Fiedler.  That same year, it was published by Mills Music, and it had already been recorded several times by 1949, including a mono recording by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops that was issued on red vinyl.  Anderson himself first recorded the piece in mono on September 11, 1950, and re-recorded it in stereo in 1959.

In 1950, music publisher Jack Mills suggested an experiment that at first was not at first well received by Anderson:  commission famed lyricist Mitchell Parish to add some words to Anderson’s music.  Parish was no stranger to successfully adding words to established instrumental numbers, having written lyrics for Hoagy Carmichael’s classic "Stardust" in 1929, Peter DeRose’s "Deep Purple" in 1934, and Glenn Miller’s "Moonlight Serenade" in 1939.  Anderson’s fear was that, should the lyricized version prove successful, his orchestral version would be forgotten.  Anderson agreed, and when Parish showed the lyrics to him, he was pleasantly surprised.  He later explained to PBS, "Mitchell Parish is unusually good at [writing lyrics] because he has the ability, he’s written many lyrics to instrumental numbers, and this is quite a knack because you see when you write a song, the lyric writer has free rein; he’s usually the one who contributes the title and other things. But here, he was stuck with the title, he had the title already, and that was not only the subject, but he had to get the word ‘Sleigh Ride’ in somewhere, he had to fit that word in and he had to build the lyrics around it."  Parish’s lyrics masterfully described in words what Anderson’s tune  had already done in music – a feat Parish would repeat six times over the years.

Even though the lyrics to "Sleigh Ride" do not specifically mention Christmas (but then, there are many traditional holiday songs that don’t), it has since become an integral holiday music piece.  Part of its success is due to its dual heritage – it stands on its own very well as a purely instrumental piece, and it is also a delightful tune for singers to perform.  In fact, according to ASCAP, it is the "only Holiday song written originally as an instrumental piece for a symphony orchestra."

"Sleigh Ride" remains one of the most-played Christmas songs, and was recently listed by ASCAP as the ninth most-performed holiday song over the last five years.

 But don’t just take my word for it.  Here are a whopping 51 versions of this popular piece for you to download, for a total of over 2 hours of listening pleasure, provided by members and friends of FaLaLaLaLa.com.

Stephen Hamilton
FaLaLaLaLa.com
 

Johnny Marks, one of the greatest writers of Christmas songs in the twentieth century, already had several holiday hits under his belt by the time he was approached to write the music for the 1964 Rankin/Bass television special, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Since he was responsible for the 1949 song on which the special was based, it was only natural that he be asked to provide other music.  Among the original songs Marks would write for the show were "Silver and Gold", "The Most Wonderful Day of the Year", and "We are Santa’s Elves".

There was one song used in the soundtrack, however, that was not written specifically for the special, and it wasn’t the title song.  It had been written by Marks two years earlier, in 1962, and had already been recorded by the time Burl Ives was signed on late in the production to star as Sam the Snowman (the original story line did not even include Sam, the character’s songs had already been done by Larry D. Mann in the character of Yukon Cornelius).

The song?  "Holly Jolly Christmas".  The artists to record it before Burl Ives?  The Quinto Sisters.

Could it be that some of you are not acquainted with the story of The Quinto Sisters?  Well, pull up an ice block and lend an ear.

The singing career of the Quinto Sisters (Quinto is their stage name, a shortened version of Giaquinto) began quite by accident, and might not have happened at all if not for the gifted ear of Mom Giaquinto.  After she’d heard her eldest daughter, Lee, singing along to the radio, she had the idea of gathering her other daughters, Bonnie, Chris, Elaine, Renée and Cindy, and having all six of them sing together.  Mom gave each of them part of a song to perform, had them practice until they got it right, and then did the same with more songs.  It wouldn’t be long before Mom had them ready to perform in public.

From the humble beginnings of the Quinto Sisters’ singing career, where they sang for free at a nursing home and at Muscular Distropy fundraising dinners, they moved on to paying gigs (they would earn $25) at organizations such as the Elks Club, Moose Club, and Knights of Columbus.  Mom Giaquinto would act as the girls’ manager, arranger, and publicist (in these early days, whe was also responsible for creating the girls’ matching outfits, and even cut their hair).  As Chris Quinto explains, "Mom did all our arrangements. She was a natural at creating harmonies. She taught us everything and she also was a force of one when it came to getting us gigs and promoting us."  It wasn’t long before Mom was able to persuade producers of television shows to audition the girls for appearances.

The Quinto Sisters sang on shows such as the long-running children’s variety show "Wonderama" and the amateur talent contest show "Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour" (when they appeared on June 10, 1962, they were aged 4 to 12).  Having made a name for themselves on television and in local newspapers, the Quinto Sisters would soon find themselves in the recording studio, thanks to professional photographer and financial backer Jack Diamond.  Another supporter was Roger Genger, who, says Chris Quinto, "dabbled in up and coming recording artists and his wife gave us free tap dancing lessons in their dance studio in Journal Square."  Diamond’s Diamond Glow Records would release the girls’ first single, Genger’s "Tex the Cowboy Santa Claus" (with Jimmie Dale’s "Skinny Little Christmas Tree" on the flip side), which they recorded in a small studio with local musicians.    

In January and February 1964, the Quinto Sisters appeared six times on "Sing Along with Mitch", hosted by bandleader and Columbia Records producer Mitch Miller.  One of their numbers, "When Frances Dances with Me", was with funny man Milton Berle.  As Chris Quinto tells it, "We had actually already been performing in public for several years before we went on ‘Sing Along with Mitch’.  So we felt confident with our singing ability if not our acting skills."  During this time, the girls would meet some of the most famous and influential people in show business, including George Burns, Shirley Temple, Sebastian Cabot, and The Four Seasons (who were interested in handling the Quinto Sisters and even wrote a song for them, which was never recorded).

In early 1964, Columbia Records took notice of the singing act and signed the Quintos on to record several more singles and their first and only album, "Holly Jolly Christmas".

With their stint at Columbia, they’d hit the big time.  Their singing on "Holly Jolly Christmas" would be backed by noted guitarist Al Caiola and the orchestrations would be arranged and conducted by exotica greats Frank Hunter and Marty Manning.  As Chris Quinto remembers the June 1964 recording session, "the Christmas album was recorded using a full orchestra with strings, French Horns and tympani drums. The famous guitarist Al Ciaola was there, too, playing for us, and it was an honor to be associated with him.  He is famous for the ‘Mod Squad’ and the ‘Untouchables’ theme songs. He did some very beautiful guitar work on our album in ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ ‘Sixty-Seven Santas,’ ‘A Skinny Little Christmas Tree’ and ‘The Little Drummer Boy’…  We went to the studio and met and sang for Frank Hunter and Marty Manning before we made the album. They recorded us singing acapella in harmony and worked from those tapes to create the instrumental arrangements around us for most of the songs."

By this time, the Quinto Sisters had a few years of experience singing together, and their collective harmonies and individual voices are a perfect match for the songs chosen for the album and the arrangements by Mom Giaquinto.  Most songs feature the girls singing as one, but the solo efforts (Lee sings lead on "Mrs. Santa Claus", Elaine sings the tongue-in-cheek "Baby Brother", and then-six-year-old Cindy performed "Skinny Little Christmas Tree") demonstrate the talented voices that their mother heard from the beginning.  

"Mom ordered several hundred copies [of 'Holly Jolly Christmas'] as soon as they came off the press, so to speak," says Chris.  "We sold them door to door and autographed them for three dollars apiece."

The Quinto Sisters would appear on Jimmy Dean’s variety show on December 24, 1964, along with Jerry Vale, country singer Porter Wagoner, and Dean’s wife and children.  They were joined by Jimmy Dean in singing "Holly Jolly Christmas."

It is important to note that the Quinto Sisters, not Burl Ives, were the first to record Johnny Marks’ "Holly Jolly Christmas".  The song was given to them for their album, along with "We Are Santas Elves," "Sixty-Seven Santas" and "The Island of Misfit Toys/The Most Wonderful Day of The Year", by Columbia.  The studio would later give "Holly Jolly Christmas" to Ives to re-record for his 1965 release, and, for or many, it would become his signature song.  The Quinto Sisters were unaware that the song had been given to Ives, who perhaps likewise did not even know about the Quintos.  "They didn’t have to tell us.  We were their employees," explains Chris.  "I learned to love Burl Ives and his ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ TV special over the years, but watching it on television after we recorded those songs and had been peddling them door to door for six months was very disappointing."

The significance of the song "Holly Jolly Christmas" can not be understated.  "At this point," says Chris Quinto, "so many people have adopted and adapted the words ‘Holly Jolly Christmas,’ that if you Google those three words, you will get about 50,000 results for items, websites and recordings by other artists. ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’ is more than a song.  It has become a phrase used by everyone during the holiday season."  Indeed, "Holly Jolly" is now used to describe everything from store holiday sales to dog toys and coats to trolley rides to annual "Holly Jolly runs".  The song itself has appeared in numerous film soundracks, and the song’s title was used as the title for a 1996 episode of "Grace Under Fire".  Jim Carrey’s character was even heard to mutter, "Are you having a holly, jolly Christmas?" in the 2000 film, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".  It is now a part of the holiday vocabulary.

"Holly Jolly Christmas" remains a very special song to Chris Quinto.  "Whichever artist you prefer, Burl Ives’ comfy, homespun version our ours, I am happy to know that so many people are still enjoying that beautiful song. I still get a thrill whenever I play it.  I must mention that the nice man who created and maintains our website was about two years old when I knocked on his door and sold the autographed album to his dad. His older brother still has the original copy."

The recordings of Lee, Bonnie, Chris, Elaine, Renée and Cindy Quinto continue to delight fans old and new.  

Many thanks to Chris Quinto for her support and help with this article.  "Please enjoy our music and wish all your readers a ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’ from the Quinto Sisters," says Chris.

Please visit the official Quinto Sisters web site, where you can listen to all of the Quinto Sisters’ recordings and see photos and videos.

Steve Hamilton
FaLaLaLaLa.com

Ask any child and he’ll tell you:  the secular Christmas trinity is Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman.  And why not?  Without Santa Claus, there would be no Rudolph, and without Rudolph, there would never have been a Frosty.  They now exist as an inseparable trio in the minds of children, thanks to some savvy songwriters, some marketing, and a string of television holiday specials. 

Santa Claus had been around for centuries before the other two first appeared, but if not for Gene Autry, Rudolph and Frosty might be minor characters in the holiday pantheon, instead of the stars they are today.

When Autry was approached by Johnny Marks in 1949 to sing his song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", Autry thought it was a silly song and refused to even consider singing it.  He had already had a holiday hit with "Here Comes Santa Claus" in 1947 (by 1950, one million copies would be sold) and was looking for a follow-up.  Autry’s wife May disagreed with his assessment of the song, thinking it a charming tune that every child would love.  Reluctantly, Autry recorded the song in one take in the last 10 minutes of the recording session for "If It Doesn’t Snow on Christmas," which he was convinced would be his next Christmas hit.  It wasn’t.  The B-side to "If It Doesn’t Snow", "Rudolph" went on to sell 2 million copies in 1949.

The song writing duo of Walter E. "Jack" Rollins (1906-1973) and Steve Edward Nelson (1907- ) saw an opportunity to capitalize on the success of "Rudolph", and set out to write their own children’s Christmas song.  The songwriters, who had penned the hit song "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" that same year, after months of trying came up with the idea of a walking, talking snowman who comes to life thanks to a magic hat.  Rather than try to duplicate the success of "Rudolph" with another animal character (it has been tried many times but nothing has had anything near the impact of Rudolph), Rollins and Nelson were no doubt inspired by memories of the innocent seasonal pastime of building a snowman – a task that requires some imagination and that is typically done by children.

In the song, it is the children who believe that Frosty actually "came to life one day", and that he could run "here and there" with them, despite the general belief that Frosty is a "fairy tale".  In this respect, Frosty is a close cousin to Santa Claus, because children actually believe in his existence, even though parents know otherwise.  Like Santa Claus, he only appears in those who truly believe in him.  The song’s simple lyrics draw on the emotions of joy ("And the children say / He could laugh and play / Just the same as you and me"), sadness ("So he said let’s run / And we’ll have some fun / Now before I melt away"), and hope ("But he waved goodbye / Saying don’t you cry / I’ll be back again some day") – all of the things that Christmas represents to children.  After all, children experiencing the joys of the holiday season know that the end is inevitable, but they always have next year’s Christmas to look forward to.  And of course Frosty will come back – just as soon as it snows again next year.

After Rollins completed the lyrics and Nelson wrote the music to "Frosty", the duo sent the song to Gene Autry.  Unlike his response to "Rudolph", Autry must have also seen some magic in the song, recording it on June 12, 1950 (just three months after recording "Peter Cottontail"), with The Cass County Boys Orchestra in Hollywood, California.  The single would reach #7 on the Pop charts and #4 on the Country charts that year and was another million-copy seller.

Western Printing and Publishing was quick to market the image of Frosty the Snowman in two forms.  In 1951, it published the Little Golden Book, adapted by Annie North Bedford and illustrated by Corine Malverne, and in Dell Comics’ issue #359 of Four Color Comics (which was the beginning of annual adventures for Frosty in Dell Comics until the winter of 1961-62).

In 1954, UPA produced the first animated version of Frosty in a cartoon short that aired on WGN TV. 

At this point, Frosty was still just another character created for the benefit of entertaining children at Christmas.  But when CBS premiered the now-familiar half-hour Rankin/Bass television special on December 7, 1969, Frosty’s place in Christmas lore became secure.  "Frosty" was the first Rankin/Bass production to use traditional cel animation, because the producers wanted to give it the feel of a Christmas card.  Future MAD Magazine artist Paul Coker, Jr., who was a greeting card illustrator at the time, was hired to animate, and writer Romeo Muller was hired to expand the story line as he did for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" five years prior.  Muller in fact took a few liberties with Rollins’ original story line, adding a nasty Professor Hinkle, who pursues Frosty when his magic hat turns out to have powers after all; a rabbit named Hocus, who abandons Hinkle and accompanies Frosty and young Karen to the North Pole; and Santa Claus, whom Hocus seeks out to help Frosty and Karen.  The special was narrated by an animated caricature of Jimmy Durante, and his rendition of the title song has since become one of the standards.  The popularity of this television special has not diminished in the 37 years since the original airing, and millions of children watch it every year, keeping Frosty true to his promise to return.

He has since returned in Rankin/Bass’ follow-up specials "Frosty’s Winter Wonderland" (1976) and "Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July" (1979), in Bill Melendez Production’s "Frosty Returns" (1992), and, most recently, to the straight-to-video "Legend of Frosty the Snowman", narrated by Burt Reynolds.

"Frosty the Snowman" remains on ASCAP’s list of Top 25 most performed holiday songs.

Here is a collection of 13 different versions of
Frosty the Snowman, mostly made available by generous members of FaLaLaLaLa.com.

One in a series of essays exploring the history of a favorite Christmas song.

Although it made its public debut in the 1948 film "Neptune’s Daughter", the song "Baby, It’s Cold Outside" had actually been written four years earlier.  Susan Loesser, in her 1993 memoir, "A Most Remarkable Fella: Frank Loesser and the Guys and Dolls in His Life: A Portrait by His Daughter", explains that, upon moving to the Navarro Hotel in New York, Frank and Lynn Loesser decided to give themselves a housewarming party.  Frank, a stage and screen composer, was no stranger to throwing parties, which typically included Hollywood personalities, each of whom was expected to perform some skit or musical number.  The entire evening would be scripted, the order of the performances being known in advance.  Frank and his wife Lynn would typically sing a duet.

It was at this party in 1944 that Frank and Lynn debuted what would eventually be one of Frank’s best known songs:  "Baby, It’s Cold Outside", with Frank at the piano.  Lynn Loesser would later recall for her daughter, "Well, the room just fell apart… I don’t think either of us realized the impact of what we’d sung. We had to do it over and over again and we became instant parlor room stars. We got invited to all the best parties for years on the basis of "Baby." It was our ticket
to caviar and truffles. Parties were built around our being the closing act."

The female voice in the song is called "The Mouse" and the male voice is called "The Wolf", although sometimes, as in "Neptune’s Daughter", the roles are reversed for comedic effect.  The lyrics to the song are rich with innuendos and humor as The Wolf does his best to convince The Mouse that she faces peril – even death by pneumonia! – if she leaves instead of staying with him, where he will ostensibly keep her nice and warm.  Like another contemporary holiday song, "Let it Snow" (1945), "Baby" has a sexual subtext.  Whereas "Let it Snow" contained only a hint of this subtext in the verse "But as long as you love me so / Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.", The Wolf earns his title in Loesser’s song with such lines as "Gosh, your lips look delicious".  The Wolf uses every device in his repertoire, from rationalization ("Baby, it’s bad out there") to distraction ("Listen to the fireplace roar") to guilt ("How can you do this thing to me?") to exaggeration ("Think of my lifelong sorrow / if you caught pneumonia and died").

Even though Frank Loesser never formally studied music, he came from a musically-oriented family.  Both his father and his half-brother Arthur were talented pianists and teachers, and Arthur would become highly acclaimed in both areas.  But despite the fact that Frank taught himself how to play the harmonica and the piano when he was young, and in fact wrote his first song, "The May Party" at age six, he would go on to work in the newspaper business after college.  In the early 1930s, however, Frank started writing songs and sketches for radio, and published his first song, "In Love with the Memory of You".

It was in the mid-1930s that Loesser’s work on the otherwise unsuccessful (it ran only five performances) Broadway show "The Illustrator’s Show" caught the attention of Hollywood.  Hired first by Universal in 1936 to write songs for its musical pictures, he would spend the remainder of the World War II period writing music for Universal and then Paramount, scoring a huge hit with his song "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition".

It was around the time when the Broadway musical "Where’s Charley" was to open that Loesser began working on the music for "Neptune’s Daughter", starring Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalban, Red Skelton, and Betty Garrett.  Loesser decided it was time to sell the rights to the tune he had performed for years with his wife, Lynn.  Lynn would later explain to her daughter, "I felt as betrayed as if I’d caught him in bed with another woman.  I kept saying ‘Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban!!!’  He finally sat me down and said, ‘If I don’t let go of "Baby" I’ll begin to think I can never write another song as good as I think this one is.’  He had to let go of it."

Let go of it Loesser did.  In the film, it is performed first by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban, and later reprised for comedic effect by Betty Garrett and Red Skelton.  The song earned Loesser his fourth Academy Award nomination for Original Song (he had previously been nominated for "Dolores" from Las Vegas Nights, "They’re Either Too Young or Too Old" from Thank Your Lucky Stars, and "I Wish I Didn’t Love You So" from The Perils of Pauline).  But this time, he would take home the Oscar.

The song quickly became a holiday standard, after being recorded by Johnny Mercer and Margaret Whiting (which hit #3 on the Billboard charts), Buddy Clark and Dinah Shore, Louis Jordan and Ella Fitzgerald, Don Cornell and Laura Leslie, and Homer & Jethro with June Carter – all just in the year 1949!  It has since been recorded numerous times, most notably by Dean Martin.

Loesser would earn one more Academy Award nomination in 1952, for "Thumbelina" from Hans Christian Andersen, but the Oscar would go to "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’)" from High Noon.  Surprisingly, Loesser treated the Oscar he won for "Baby" as sort of a joke, giving it to his daughter Susan to play with.  Susan kept it in her room for several years, but after her parents divorced in 1956, Frank again claimed it, joking to Susan once that he would use it as a doorstop.  "I knew I’d find a use for this thing," Susan remembers him saying.

 Here is a collection of 14 different versions of this classic song, mostly made available by generous members of falalalala.com.
 

"The One Horse Open Sleigh", published in 1857, dedicated to John P. Ordway, Esq.
Renamed "Jingle Bells" and published in 1859
Lyrics and music by James Lord Pierpont (1822-1893)

That
definitive Christmas song, “Jingle Bells”, which we’ve all known since
we were old enough to attempt to sing, and with which each of us no
doubt associates many a Christmas memory, is not what you think it is. 
The version you hear on the radio today?  Only a close relative of the
original song.  The original wasn’t even called “Jingle Bells”, and was
not even intended to be a Christmas song (but then, neither was “Winter
Wonderland”)!  The long history of this song is filled with more
controversy and myths than practically any other holiday carol.  What
version you get just depends on whom you ask, but be careful:  this
North vs. South battle is as heated as any fought during the Civil War.

This
much is true:  “Jingle Bells”, originally entitled “One Horse Open
Sleigh”, was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822-1893), son of poet
and reverend John Pierpont and uncle of financier J.P. (James Pierpont)
Morgan, in the 1850s.  It was no doubt inspired by memories of growing
up in Medford, Massachusetts, as it evokes images of sleigh rides both
leisurely and frenetic, and of young romance.  It was copyrighted on
Sep. 16, 1857, by Oliver Ditson & Co., and dedicated to John P.
Ordway, Esq.  Two years later, it was republished as “Jingle Bells”.

All
parties seem to agree that “One Horse Open Sleigh” was written and
first performed by a church choir, either for his father’s Medford
service or for a service for the Unitarian Church at Troup Square in
Savannah, where his brother, John, was pastor.  If that’s true, it is
surprising, given that the lyrics describe fast-paced sleigh races
(Hitch him to an open sleigh and crack! you’ll take the lead), the
courtship of a young lady (And soon Miss Fanny Bright, was seated by my
side), and encourages young men to participate in both of these
activities (Now the ground is white, go it while you’re young; Take the
girls tonight, and sing this sleighing song).  Again, nowhere in the
lyrics is Christmas mentioned.

As for the legends surrounding
this song, many versions exist.  Both Medford, Massachusetts, and
Savannah, Georgia, claim to be its birthplaces, and both do have some
legitimate claims.  Logic seems to dictate that Pierpont wrote the
song’s lyrics and music in Medford in the early 1850s and later found a
publisher for it while living in Savannah.

The Medford version of the story goes like this: 

Pierpont
was given the assignment to write a song for a Thanksgiving service at
the First Medford Unitarian Church where his father was the pastor. 
One legend says that this took place in 1840, and claims that the
choir’s performance was so well received that local residents asked for
an encore at the Christmas service.  After the Christmas service, the
song became a local favorite as people adopted it as one of their
traditional carols, well before the song was ever published.  Another
version of the legend claims that it was written for the 1857
Thanksgiving service. 

What is consistent about all of the
Medford accounts is that Pierpont came up with the melody to his song
first, and went to the home of Mrs. Otis Waterman, who owned the only
piano in town.  As he worked out the song on the piano, Mrs. Waterman
noted, “That is a very merry little jingle!” (a comment that one
assumes led to the song’s chorus and eventual name), and that he should
have a lot of success with it.  A plaque outside the Simpson Tavern in
Medford at one time marked it as being the birthplace of the song, but
the sign was damaged by a snow plow and had to be removed.
Those from Savannah, however, have a different version of the origin of “Jingle Bells”:

In
1853, Pierpont left his wife, Millicent, and their two children, in
Medford with his father.  (This wasn’t the first time Pierpont had left
his family.  At the age of 14, he ran away from home to sail the sea
about a ship called “The Shark”.  And, in 1849, Pierpont moved to San
Francisco during the height of the Gold Rush, to open up a business in
the hopes of striking it rich.  When the business burned to the ground
in one of the Great Fires, he moved back to Medford.)  He moved to
Savannah, where he earned money by playing organ and giving singing
lessons at the Unitarian Church, where his brother, Rev. John Pierpont,
Jr., was pastor.  Pierpont published his first songs in Savannah, and,
after Millicent died of tuberculosis in 1856, he married Eliza Jane
Purse, daughter of Savannah’s mayor, Thomas Purse.

Savannahians
say that Pierpont wrote “One Horse Open Sleigh” in 1856 or 1857,
possibly to “cheer up the local Sunday-school evening meeting”.  One
fact that can not be disputed, however, is that the song was published
in 1857 by the Oliver Ditson Company of Boston.  The company reissued
the song under the name “Jingle Bells, Or the One Horse Open Sleigh” in
1859, at 30 cents a copy (5 cents more than the original).

Pierpont
never saw much profit from the sales of his song, due to the contract
he had with Ditson.  In fact, he never thought it was a song that would
have any lasting popularity – after all, none of his other songs did –
and never took much credit for it.  Initial copies only credited the
song’s composer as “J. Pierpont” (which was assumed to be John
Pierpont, James’ father), or even “James S.” or “anonymous”.  It was
only when the “Salem Evening News” did a piece on the song in 1864 that
Pierpont realized that how popular “Jingle Bells” really was.

After
James Lord Pierpont’s death in 1893, proper credit was again not given
on copies of the sheet music, again listing the composer as
“anonymous”.  Pierpont’s son, Dr. Juriah Pierpont M.D., who had renewed
the copyright on “Jingle Bells” in 1880, began sending letters along
with his wife, Lucy, to the music publishing companies.  Their campaign
eventually paid off, and Pierpont’s name was again attached to his
music.  His descendants, raised in the south, also fought to associate
the song’s origins with Savannah.

Even though the song had been
known in the north, its popularity really increased with the invention
of phonographs and radios.  The first recording of “Jingle Bells” was
by the Edison Male Quartette in 1898, available on an Edison brown wax
cylinder, and again in 1902 by the Hayden Quartet.   The version
recorded by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in 1943 sold a million
copies that year and became Crosby’s eighth million-selling record.

Pierpont
died on August 5,1893, in Winter Haven, Florida, where he had lived his
final years with his son. Initially buried in Florida, Pierpont’s body
was moved to Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, where he was placed
next to his brother-in-law Thomas, who had been killed in the first
battle of Bull Run.  The Unitarian Universalist Church in Savannah,
which today calls itself the “Jingle Bells Church”, erected a plaque in
1985 to honor James Pierpont.

Visitors to the Laurel Grove
Cemetery today will have no problem finding Pierpont’s grave.  Five
hand-painted signs point the way:  "Jingle Bells", "Jingle Bells",
"Jingle Bells", "Jingle Bells", "Jingle Bells".