Write to the Point
The holiday season brings around the festive and catchy music of the year. Some radio stations dedicate the month of December to playing just Christmas songs and I am truly thankful for that because this is the only time of the year that we can listen to this type of music.
So I will just be upfront and honest, my favorite Christmas song is “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey. You can judge all you want, but you can’t deny that it is super catchy and you can’t help but sing along to it. And there is always that one song that nobody can stand, and that song for me is definitely “Feliz Navidad.” I always have to change the radio station whenever that comes on. Sorry to all those people that enjoy that song.
But if I had to go back to the classic holiday music, I would choose “Silent Night” as the best song.
Now that we got my favorites out of the way, let’s find out what everyone else thinks. Well, I guess I was not the only one that liked the classic holiday song because in a study by TIME magazine, “Silent Night” was deemed the winner.
According to the publication, “To determine the fact, TIME crawled the records at the U.S. Copyright Office, which offers digitized registrations going back to 1978, and collected data on every Christmas album recorded since that time. “Silent Night,” it turns out, is not merely the most popular carol with 733 copyrighted recordings since 1978, it is nearly twice as dominant as “Joy to the World,” a distant second with 391 records to its name.”
“Silent Night” does go back to the roots of Christmas, so it is hard to argue with that one. The song was composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in a tiny city of Oberndorf bei Salzburg in Austria. The first performance of the song was on Christmas Eve during the same year it was written at a St. Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf.
One of the fun facts about the song is that Bing Crosby’s version is the third best-selling single of all-time. He is also the artist with the most Christmas songs recorded and his “White Christmas” is the most released Christmas track. Way to represent the Pacific Northwest, Bing.
I think the song is also symbolic because if you attend any Christmas Eve service, you will more than likely get to light a candle and sing along to the song. It doesn’t feel like a complete Christmas Eve without the tradition.
The fun thing about the music around this time of year is that there is such a variety of tunes that circulate with the holiday jingles. I mean we can go from listening to “Jingle Bells” to “Santa is Coming to Town” to “Joy to the World.” And that is just the beginning.
Some research indicates that there are around 1 million versions and songs for the holiday season. And that number changes every year as more artists contribute to the data base of music.
So when you are listening to the radio this holiday season, make sure you are supporting the good music that is around this time of year. It makes everything feel more festive and puts you in the good holiday spirit. Nothing beats that.
Grace Pohl can be reached at grace@cheneyfreepress.com.
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