Image: Photograph of the original sheet music of “Jingle Bells; Or the One horse open Sleigh,” by J. Pierpont.
Some years ago a younger member of my family fell in love with “Jingle Bells,” as I already had, so I made a CD-R of 20-some versions of it, all of them different, all of them terrific, which we still listen to regularly Every Christmas Season. Such a fertile song! So welcoming of different interpretations. One of the classics.
And once you get past the first verse, the fun multiplies. The sleigh crashes into the snow! We got . . . “upsot”? Yes, upsot. And delightfully so, especially when sung by Barbra Streisand, who slathers on the Brooklynese for comic effect, in the midst of High (comical) Dramatic Intensity. Ella Fitzgerald urges us to “Go it” with her masterful, delightful swing. Go it! I love that. Go it! I’ll never stop trying to Go It.
Myriad singers bringing their particular style & elan — Sinatra, Crosby, Etta James, Danny Kaye, the aforementioned Fitzgerald & Streisand — many many others. A version by a Beatles-tribute band (called The Fab Four) that mashes up a recreation of the rhythm track of “Tomorrow Never Knows” with the old jingling standard.
And then the fabulous instrumental versions. Hot guitar from Brad Paisley or the Ventures or Buck Owens’ lead player, Don Rich. Duke Ellington’s modern-jazz harmonies and abstracted piano introduction, and the tasty solos by his big band of virtuosi. Tasty soul-inflected jazz by organist Jimmy Smith and the Ramsey Lewis Trio.
And who can forget the Christmas Dogs’ version? A pickup band I was in covered that arrangement — I barked the baritone dog’s part; my friend John de Roo barked the tenor dog’s part.
And then a few years ago I plunked through the original sheet music, which I picked up in a songbook, Popular Songs of Nineteenth Century America, which fits, because James Pierpont wrote it in 1859. And! the melody is different, especially the famous chorus — that chorus which has been quoted in so many records, to signify “Christmas song,” from Charles Brown’s original recording of “Merry Christmas Baby” to the Drifters’ epochal doo-wop arrangement of “White Christmas” to Joni Mitchell’s classic, “River.” Instead of those seven, indelible repeated notes — “Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jing-” — before the tune goes up a minor third, the original chorus changed notes after the first iteration of the title! “Jingle Bells” — and then the melody went up!
I stumbled through a recording of it a couple of years ago. Here it is, if you want to hear it (along with some verbiage from me, and several mistakes).
Image: a still photograph of me from the video; I’m sitting at the piano and addressing the camera.
I posted the video on social media, asking — when did the melody change? Who changed it?
My friend Jay Sherman-Godfrey found the oldest known recording of the song, from 1898. The melody is very close to how people sing it now, with the chorus not quite there — this group repeats the first ten notes! Here is the link: It's worth a listen. Jay also found that like many famous nineteenth-century American songs — a few examples from many: “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” “I Went to the Animal Fair,” and “Hello Ma Baby” — “Jingle Bells” began life as a song intended to be performed in blackface.
The three other songs I mentioned all carry deep personal associations for me. I had not known the songs to have originally been songs to have been performed in blackface when I formed my associations with them. Same with “Jingle Bells.” We’d been enjoying the song as a family for years before I learned of its roots.
I still love it.
And so have many great musicians. For those who are curious and use Spotify, I made a playlist here.
So many Christmas songs evoke nostalgia for times past. The promise, though, of Christmas, remains futuristic: Peace on Earth, Good Will Among People. Here’s to doing what we can to hastening that day’s arrival.
Here’s to love.