FaLaLaLaLa

So here’s my latest snag from Ebay. It cost me a chunk of change, but c’mon…did you see the title?!?! I couldn’t let it go!

It’s a 45 with Space Age Santa Claus on side one and When Christmas Bells Are Ringing on the flip side. Both songs are written by Ross Christman and performed by The Hal Bradley Orchestra with Patty Marie Jay on vocals.
So here’s my latest snag from Ebay. It cost me a chunk of change, but c’mon…did you see the title?!?! I couldn’t let it go!It’s a 45 with Space Age Santa Claus on side one and When Christmas Bells Are Ringing on the flip side. Both songs are written by Ross Christman and performed by The Hal Bradley Orchestra with Patty Marie Jay on vocals.

It’s got some great organ sounds and a guitar solo drenched with echo. It’s upbeat, bouncy and pretty silly. So, needless to say, it’s pretty great!

The thing is, I started doing some research once I ripped the vinyl and found that it appeared last year on Andy Cirzan’s Santa Claus Soundscapes compilation last year–which, of course, I have on my hard drive! Doh!

Well, I do get the sleeve art, which is pretty boss. I need to photoshop out a lot of the record wear, but it’s in decent condition. The B-side is a slow torch number, not bad but nothing to write home about.

Here are the lyrics to Space Age Santa Claus:

Santa Claus has a rocket sleigh
Getting ready to zoom away
On his first trip into space
In his pressurized suit with the fur along the border
And a long white bearded helmet made just to order
He’ll take the Christmas spirit every place

His eight reindeer will travel by jet
They’ll go farther than they’ve ever gone yet
With the Space Age Santa, Space Age Santa Claus

He’ll loop tinsel around through the stars
Light up Christmas trees all over Mars
He’ll take the dark clouds out of the air
And hang up fluffs of angel hair

He’ll start a gift shop on the moon
Set the moon folk humming Christmas tunes
He’ll stir up egg nog in the Milky Way
To fill the Dippers for the holiday

Space kids will hang up nylon hose
Hear the song about Rudolph’s red nose
Saturn will stroll down Santa Claus Lane
And swing a jaunty candy cane

The Gemini twins will whirl with joy
When he makes The Swan a wind-up toy
He’ll show them how to add to all the fun
And make it orbit ’round and ’round the sun

Oh, Santa Claus has a rocket sleigh
Getting ready to zoom away
On his first trip into space
In his pressurized suit with the fur along the border
And a long white bearded helmet made just to order
He’ll take the Christmas spirit every place

His eight reindeer will travel by jet
They’ll go farther than they’ve ever gone yet
With the Space Age Santa, Space Age Santa Claus

Don’t worry, you’ll get to hear it as part of this year’s ADVENTure in Carols 2005….

"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".

The server that my friend loans me for the falalalala media files has gone down. He’s working on getting it going.

Not sure how long it’s going to take. So downloads on the site will be unavailable until further notice.

Luckily it’s not December….

The King