Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Today In Oldies 12/22/2010

Golden Hits Radio & GHR-2's Everything Oldies......all the Oldies news you need for the holidays!

 

A Shot At The Title......Christmas (and Bing Crosby) Edition

Last week, Everything Oldies put a spotlight on songs which had different titles than the ones we came to know and love.  Christmas songs are no exception, and in this case, we take a look at two which became standards by none other than Mr. Christmas Song himself, Bing Crosby. 

  • Written by the legendary songwriting team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for the 1951 Bob Hope film The Lemon Drop Kid, this song's original title came from the "tinkling" of the Salvation Army bells outside stores at Christmas.  When Livingston came home, wrote the song, and performed it for his wife the first time, she was shocked that he would give a song a title with a bathrooom connotation.  He discarded the song temporarily, but he and Evans eventually came back to it after playing around with other ideas and being unable to find anything that fit.  The first recorded version of the song was done by Bing Crosby (w/ Carol Richards) a year after being included in the movie, by which time "Tinkle Bells" was given the more appropriate title of............

  • This holiday classic dates back to the 19th century, with words and music by James S. Pierpont in 1857.  It was originally written for a Thanksgiving Day church service in Savannah, Georgia but quickly spread among the congregation and shared as a Christmas song.  The first known recording of the song came with the Edison Male Quartette some 42 years later in 1898.  Bing Crosby was the first artist to put it on the charts in 1943, and its most successful chart incarnation came with a #1 (Adult Contemporary) rendition from American Idol contestant Kimberly Locke in 2006.  It also has the distinction of being the first song played in space, performed on harmonica as part of a prank by the astronauts on the Gemini 6 mission.  The song that was copyrighted in 1857 as "One Horse Open Sleigh" is one we sing often today as..........

 

Golden Hits Radio and GHR-2's Burning Question of the Day

Did The Beatles ever officially release a Christmas song?

Check back tomorrow @ Everything Oldies for the answer, and leave a comment here with your best guess! 

Yesterday's Burning Question (and Answer) of the Day

Two Billy Joel songs have doubled as TV show theme songs over the years.  Name both of them.

Answer: "My Life" was the theme for the ABC sitcom "Bosom Buddies" (starring a very young Tom Hanks), and "You May Be Right" for the early 90's CBS sitcom "Dave's World"


 

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