December 11, 2024 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Ace Collins, the author of Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas tells the stories of people you’ve never met, stories you’ve never heard, and meanings you’d never have imagined of some of the most beloved songs of Christmas.
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show
and today and around the Christmas season, we bring you
special stories about a special time and the stories behind
the stories of our Christmas traditions. And today we're going
to focus on Christmas songs we love to sing and
(00:32):
these are fascinating stories that we hope will enrich your
holiday celebration. Ace Collins is the author of stories behind
the best loved songs of Christmas. Collins is an ace
at song history, and he's here to introduce you to
people you've never met, stories you've never heard, and meanings
you'd never have imagined.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Ears Ace, one of the best Christmas songs is Oh
Holy Night. You can back almost two hundred years to France,
when a local priest asked a parishioner who was the
commissioner of wines to write a poem for the Christmas
Eve service. He was writing in a carriage on the
way to Paris. He wrote the poem was so impressed
(01:15):
with it that he took it to a friend of
his who wrote operas, and he asked him, can you
write music to this poem? The man read the poem said,
it's a beautiful poem, but I think I'm not the
right guy to do it. He said, no, no, you
have this handle on music. I want you to write it.
So he put together some beautiful music to.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Go with it.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It was sung in a little church in France that
evening of Christmas Eve Mass, and people were so impressed.
It became a tradition in that church and within five
years had spread clear across France, and then it began
to spread across England. Ironically enough, in about eighteen forty
(01:55):
the French church threw it out of services because they
it was too secular, think of Holy Night being secutor.
But the whole point was this, the man who had
written the music to go with the lyrics was Jewish,
and they didn't want a Jewish man's music associated with Christmas. Well,
(02:17):
they didn't stop the English from singing it at Christmas time,
and then it came to the United States in the
eighteen fifties, not as a Christmas song, but as a
part of the abolitionist movement. Because in the third verse
there are a number of lines dealing with chain shall
he break, for the slave is our brother in his name,
(02:38):
all Opprussian shall cease. It was after the Civil War
that this song, Oh Holy Night, which is one of
the most beautiful of all carells, began to be a
part of the caroly movement here in the United States
and was brought into churches. It's also a song that
has two other great stories with it. One the Franco
Prussian War. On Christmas Eve, some French guy jumped out
(03:01):
of a fox hole when sang that song. He was
answered by a German who sang Silent Night, and the
two sides got together and had twenty four hours of
celebrations of Christmas. So it early was the song that
brought peace on earth. Let's go ahead. The nineteen oh
six Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a man named Fessenden is working on
doing something that everyone thought was impossible. He is going
(03:25):
to create a transmitter that is so strong it will
broadcast the human voice. Now Marconi even said this was impossible.
Edison said it was impossible. Alexander Graham Bell said you
can't have a transmitter that can do that. Yet, on
Christmas Eve nineteen oh six, Fessisenden tried his new invention
(03:47):
out and people who were in telegraph offices and ships
at sea, and newsrooms and weather bureau suddenly heard his
voice reading the second chapter of Luke rather than dot
dot dash dash. Now imagine what you must have felt
like to hear a human voice coming over these little
speakers when you had been told it was impossible. Then
(04:10):
Fesssenden picked up a violin and the very first song
ever played on radio was a Holy Ninth. I get
asked about the Twelve Days of Christmas a great deal.
And there's some controversy with this song. There are some
people that believe that the meaning of the Twelve Days
of Christmas was added after the song was written. It
was not written as anything but a kind of a
(04:32):
silly little Christmas song. And I don't know if it
was written as a code song or if it became
a code song, but I can tell you this, the
Catholic Church did use it. I've talked to Catholic historians.
I've talked in both the United States and Great Britain
as a code song when Catholicism was outlawed by the
(04:52):
Church of England, and this song the Twelve Days of
Christmas therefore had religious meanings that were attached to the
ricks Once again, were they written as code or did
the Catholic Church seize upon this and find a way
to make it a code. I think it was written
as code, but I don't know that. You know. The
(05:13):
argument's going to go back and forth on that for eternity.
None of us will ever know which is right and
which is wrong. But I can tell you what the
code words in this were and what they meant. A
partridge in a partree. The partridge is the only bird
that will lay down its life for its nest. That
partridge in a paratree, therefore, is about Jesus Christ. The
(05:34):
second Day of Christmas was two turtle doves. What are
the two turtle doves? Those are the Gospel, the Old
and the New Testaments. Three French hens. Well, that is
a very interesting things because that those birds represent faith, hope,
and love. It goes back to First Corinthians thirteen. Fourth
day of Christmas. Four birds calling. Well, what are the
(05:56):
four birds calling? They're the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John. Fifth Day of Christmas. Five golden rings. That's
the Torah, the five books of the Old Testament. Six
days of Christmas. Is my true Love gave to me
six geese elaine, what could that be? Well, you know,
those lyrics can be translated back to the first story
(06:17):
found of the Bible. Each egg represents a day when
the world was created, the seventh day, of course, when
it was hatched, seventh day of Christmas. My true love
gave to me seven swans a swimming What are those
seven swans a swimming?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Well, that's the.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Gifts of the spirit, prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading,
and compassion. Eight maids of milking. There was nothing lower
in England that was than being a milkmaid. And this
is the story of Christ coming not just for the King,
but also for the least of these and the milk
(06:54):
maid in England they were definitely the least of these.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to Ace Collins tell the story
of one of the best love Christmas songs of all time.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And by the way, just think about it.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And we take these things for granted, hearing a voice
through a speaker, and what are the first things ever read?
A passage from the Gospel, and of course a Holy Night,
the first song ever performed? And on Christmas Eve of
all days, when we come back more of the stories
behind the best loved songs of Christmas. Here on our
American Stories. Here are our American Stories. We bring you
(07:32):
inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories
from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.
But we can't do it without you. Our stories are
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If you love our stories in America like we do,
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(07:54):
keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories
dot Com. And we continue here with our American Stories
and our special Christmas edition. Let's pick up where we
(08:15):
last left off with eighth Colin sharing with us the
story of the coded Catholic Christmas Carol, the twelve Days
of Christmas.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Year's eighth Nine ladies dancing?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
What it was?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Nine ladies dancing? Those are the fruits of the Holy Spirit,
you know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faith, gentleness,
and self control. Ten lords of Leaping's pretty easy, you know.
That is the judges in the law. Ten lords. Well,
that's also the ten Commandments. The eleventh Day of Christmas.
(08:49):
My true Love gave to me eleven pipers piping. Those
are the disciples that took the story out to the world. Well,
you may say there's twelve disciples. Judas did not take
the word out, the eleven Discipleiples took the word out.
And finally the last one is twelve drummers drumming. Well
that you can tell that directly to the Catholic Church
because that's the Apostles creed and so that is the
(09:12):
story behind the Twelve Days of Christmas. And I think
it's one of the most fascinating stories of all because
it was essentially speaking a teacher's aid, and that makes
it very special when you look at history, and one
of the things we've got to recognize here, most of
our great carols and most of our great traditions came
(09:35):
about because of the missionaries, the early missionaries in the
Catholic Church as well. We owe them a tremendous debt
of gratitude for all the different things and elements of
Christmas that they brought to us from the cultures that
they went out and had missionary contact with. Getting back
to one of the little known things, there's so many
great stories about silent night. But did you realize this,
(09:57):
the little bitty church in Austria, or that little was
brought to life is Saint Nicholas, And that to me
is just you know, And we would not know the
story of Silent Knight, nor would we sing it, because
it was a one It was you know, it was
put together because the organ didn't work for one time
only somebody had had to fix the organ. And the
guy who came by to fix the organ, said, what
(10:18):
did you do for music? On Christmas? Even the priest
played him that song, He wrote down the lyrics, he
wrote down the music and took it everywhere he went
in Europe, fixing organs, and within twenty years it had
spread to the United States. And the priest who was
this little priest Joseph Moore and opened to Austria, had
no idea that anybody was singing his song, because he'd
even quit singing it. And he went to Colonne, Germany
(10:41):
one time, and there it was ringing from this cathedral
and he went, how did they find out about that?
You know? And so he died without ever being given
credit for writing the song. Yeah, but what an impact
this little priest who never went into anything except little
churches and Austin had on the world because that is
(11:01):
that Jesus loves me. Of all Christmas carols, you know,
everybody knows it. I love to look at what music
has meant to traditions because I don't think you could
have Christmas without the music.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I've always told people at my house, it wasn't Christmas
until you heard being sing White Christmas and Elvis sing
Blue Christmas. You had to have both of those songs
play before it really became Christmas. And the music of
the season was not always that important if you were
not a Catholic. Yes, Glory and Excessive Dais dates back
probably nineteen hundred years. It dates back to at least
(11:37):
one thirty. Part of that song does and songs like Oh,
Come O Come Emmanuel date back to the nine hundreds.
But most of our Christmas music is relatively new, and
it was birthed after the Civil War by something that
happened first in Victorian England and then spread to the
United States, and that was Christmas caroling. And suddenly, with
Christmas caroling, you had the opportunity to write new song
(12:00):
songs that people could sing as they went house to
house caroling in the eighteen hundreds and eighteen nineties, and
with the invention of the phonograph record that really took off.
One of the songs, though, that I think is the
is the most interesting of all of the songs that
created tradition like no other, was a song that was
written in Medford, Massachusetts and about eighteen forty and it
(12:23):
was written by a preacher's son for a Thanksgiving gathering
in the community. His father had assigned him the task
of creating a song for the Christmas choir, and he
was sitting at the only piano in Medford, Massachusetts, and
couldn't concentrate because of all the noise outside his door.
(12:43):
He went outside his door and these teenage boys were
attempting to impress teenage girls by having drag races with
a horse drawn sleigh. Okay, I mean that's what it
was on. This was what inspired him. He didn't go
in and write something for Thanksgiving. He wrote an eighteen
forties beach boys song. It's called jingle Bells. If you
(13:05):
listen to it, it is all about guys trying to
impress girls by going fast with their hot rods of
the period. Well, the people who came and that Thanksgiving
to hear this song, were so impressed with the children's
chore they begged for.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Them to put it in the.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Christmas service as well. So imagine this reverend Christmas service
and in the middle of it, these kids are singing
jingle Bells. Well, the people who visited from Boston and
New York City thought it was a Christmas song, and
they took it back to New York and Boston. Is
a Christmas song in the eighteen sixties. It has spread
all over the United States. Curier knives we're using it
(13:46):
for inspiration. One horse sleigh, the images of snow, the
images of children gathering, the image of writing in these
sleighs all goes back to the greatest Thanksgiving song of
all time, jingle Bells, which is nothing more than a
beach boy song, but it is that song that has
projected into our minds. Hollywood is used at TV, is
(14:07):
used at Heaven knows how many Hallmark movies have used
it now as a part of their important tradition. You
can't pick up a Christmas card without having the inspiration
of jingle bells all over it. And I think that's
one of the most interesting things about American Christmas is
that American Christmas was literally defined by a song about
(14:29):
drag racing one horse sleighs in New England and was
meant only for one Thanksgiving service. It's the greatest Thanksgiving
song of all time. But I mean, you think about it,
it is totally into Oh you hear something else that
is funny that goes with it too, that it ties
right into it. This song, jingle Bell Rock, the first
great rock and roll Christmas song. Jingle Bell Rock is
(14:53):
not about dancing. It's two guys from New England who
happened to live in New Orleans then wrote it about
a New England Christmas, about rocking along as a one
horse drawn sleigh and if you listen to the lyrics,
there's nothing about dancing or anything else. But when Brenda
Lee cut it at twelve years old, Owen Bradley was
the producer, and it became this monster hit. Everybody thought
(15:16):
it was a rock and roll song, and the guys
were initially appalled that people thought it was a dance
song until the royalty checks started coming in and then suddenly,
oh yeah, that's fine, we meant that all along, you know,
But it was you know, that is what you know,
jingle Bell Rock was all about. Yeah, you know, it
is so funny because seven of the top ten best
selling Christmas songs of all time were written by Jewish people.
(15:40):
White Christmas, Root Off the Red Nose, Reindeer, A Holly
Jolly Christmas, jingle Bell Rock, but Holly Jolly Christmas, Ruodolf
and jingle Bell Rock were all written by Johnny Marks.
And so you start and I ask a friend of
mine who was Jewish one time, I said, you know,
why are they there's so many great Christmas songs written
(16:02):
by Jewish people? He said, well, it was a Jewish
guy's birthday.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Of course I found out stories behind all of them,
and that's not the reason. But you know that were
still you know, that's a great line. I mean, that
is just really a good line. I started keeping track
about nine ten years ago of what the number one
song story that people ask about on Christian radio and
(16:26):
on secular radio. I was curious as to how they
lined up. The number one song story on secular radio
that people ask about is a Holy Ninth, which I
found found fascinating. The number one song on Christian radio
that people ask me about is Grandma got run over
by a raindeer.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Grian law got run over by rain there walking home
from our house Christmas. You can say there's no such thing.
Outsand lads, for me and Grandpa, we believe.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
The guy who wrote Grandma got run over by reindeer
had He was a Vanderbilt student.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And he had a band.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
And his band Betty, you can't write a song where
somebody dies in the first verse and have.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Anybody listened to us.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
That's so he did, and it became a hit for
several different groups, including Elmo and Patsy probably had the
biggest hit on You know Scott Bell who wrote that song?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
What is?
Speaker 4 (17:28):
What is?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
What did he do with his life? He's an air
traffic controller.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
She had hoof prim Order of Forehead, ndon criminit in
laws marks.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
On our back And you're listening to the infectious storytelling
of Ace Collins. It doesn't get any better, folks, when
we come back more of these great stories of our
best loved Christmas songs here on our American Stories.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
And we continue with.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Our American Stories and our special Christmas Edition, and we
do this each year around the Christmas holiday season, and
we do it because we love it, and we hope
you love it. But these stories are stories that we
think need to be heard, and well we have great
people telling them, and you're listening to Ace Collins tell
(18:29):
the stories behind the best loved songs of Christmas. Let's
pick up when we last left off year's Ace.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
You know I mentioned earlier that it's not Christmas till
you heard Being in Elvis, maybe Perry Como. But think
about this, Bing Crosby would probably be forgotten today without
all of his Christmas hits. It wouldn't be true of Elvis,
but it would be true of Being. There are other
people who had one hit. Bobby Helms, who was jingle
(18:58):
bell rock listen to every year, who otherwise would have
been lost forever. Dinah Shore charted four hundred and fifty times,
never had a Christmas song, so nobody ever remembers one
of the top charting artists of the nineteen forties and
early fifties because she didn't ever find that Christmas song.
Christmas songs make you immortal. If you're an artist, you
(19:20):
know that is just it's mind boggling. If you have
a Christmas hit, people are going to be listening to
you for the next hundred years. That's a big part
of the fact that your identity is going to be
hooked on to a large jury to a Christmas song.
If you're an artist from the thirties, forties and fifties
and they're still playing your stuff, they're playing your stuff
by a large because it's Christmas. And if you didn't
(19:43):
have that Christmas hit, they wouldn't be playing your stuff.
And so Christmas hits do make you, to a certain
degree immortal. You know, you'll come back every late November
and early December, and you'll be a part of Christmas
movies on Hallmark forever because the will play a blurb
of you singing one of those songs. And you know,
(20:06):
it's ironic that Elvis's big hit was Blue Christmas, when
his best Christmas song was why can't every Day? But
day will be Like Christmas, which is still played, but
not like Blue Christmas has played, and Blue Christmas has
been around for eleven years, but not twelve years before
Elvis cut it, and it had gone nowhere and not
been a major hit at all. Did Elvis cut it? Christmas?
Speaker 4 (20:33):
We love you.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
So bo? Who does think again?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
You echo.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Shuns over it.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
On a.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Christmas tree.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Oh it would be.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
The The family of the man who wrote that song
told me that blue Christmas means green at their house
because of the royalty checks to help us generates every
every Christmas for them. So yeah, you know Irving Berlin's
(21:22):
take on white Christmas when he told when he gave
it to Bing Crosby, Irving Berlin told Bing, I've writ
some great songs for this movie Holiday m but my
Christmas song is just not very good. And he played
it for being and said, oh my gosh, Irving, this
is perfect. And berlin'said, are you sure I don't think
it captures the captures what Christmas is all about? And
he said, no, no, don't change a word. We'll We'll
(21:44):
sing it.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Oh what.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Chris with every Christmas card?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
You know A great story behind silver Bells that was
in the Bob Hope movie A Lemon Drop Kid. Bob
thought he finally had a hit Christmas song, being had four,
he wanted one too, his best friend all these hits,
and so when he sang it in the movie, he thought, Okay,
I'm gonna go in this fall and cut this song
(22:34):
and release it for Christmas. Because the movie wasn't coming
out to Christmas anyway. Well, being heard listen to Bob
talking about the song, went into the studio, cut silver bells,
beat Bob to the marketplace with it, and bing Crosby
had to hit on silver bells and Bob still never
had a Christmas ht so his best friend beat him again.
(22:55):
Matthis is another one. You know. I mentioned Como because
Como's only listened to because he all as Christmas specials.
And you think about the song Christmas is amazing because
years before Rosa Parks broke the color barrier on the
buses and Jackie Robinson wrote the color barrier in baseball.
(23:16):
Nat King Cole took a Mel tourmat song and broke
the color barrier at Christmas with the Christmas song jazz
Nuts roasting on an open five, Jack Froz nipping at
you know, and you know, and Mel Tourmet had to
(23:40):
fight to take that song he had written and give
it to Nat King Cole because there were a lot
of radio stations across the United States that wouldn't play
music of a black man. And ultimately speaking, that song
was so powerful and that song touched so many lives
that in nineteen forty six, it really became the song
brought a bit of color to Christmas, and I think
(24:02):
that's one of the great stories. But Christmas songs that last,
you know, either have to have a different point of view,
like Mary, did you Know?
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Which is?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
You know? Mark Lowry's incredible song? Or Why Christmas? I'll
Be Home for Christmas, or released during World War two,
have Yourself a Married Little Christmas by Judy Garland. I'm
not sure they would have been huge hits without the
fact of what those songs meant to a nation divided
by a world war, with so many families separated during
(24:35):
from nineteen forty one to nineteen forty five. And so
I think the timing of when a song is released
do you hear what I hear? Released during the Civil War,
it's timing that has to do, I guess with everything
in life, but it's particularly true at Christmas. If your
song comes out a time when people are insecure and
(24:57):
they need something to latch onto the it's easy to
latch onto a Christmas song like White Christmas or I'll
Be Home for Christmas or have Yourself a Merry Little
Christmas as a secular prayer during that holiday season, and
I think, you know, I think that is one of
those songs have resonated for so long when you had
(25:18):
some really great Christmas songs that were written during that
same time that right before World War two or right
after World War two, that we don't we don't listen
to or sing anymore. Timing is everything when it comes
to holidays. The song stories are really good. I mean,
you know, you think about Gloria in excessus dais, and
(25:42):
that's a song that goes back to probably one thirty
a d. There was a church leader long before we
were celebrating Christmas that instructed all congregations in the Christian
Church at that time that whenever the second chapter of
Luke was read, that the congregation should sing Gloria x
esse Dall's. And therefore, at least part of that song
(26:05):
that we know as Gloria now existed eighteen hundred ninety
years ago. And if that is the case, and all
the different congregations knew that song, you know, then it
had to have been passed down earlier than that. So
it doesn't take much of a leap of faith to
(26:25):
think that song is probably predates that one thirty edict
by you know, anywhere from seventy to eighty years. And
therefore the guy who wrote that may have actually known Jesus,
and that makes that song very very powerful.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Indeed, great job as always to Greg Hanglick for putting
this storytelling together and forgetting us and bringing us.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Ace Collins, who is the.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Author of the story Worries behind the Best Loved Songs
of Christmas, And indeed what storytelling We just heard the
story of the stories behind the best loved Songs of Christmas.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Our special episodes of
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Our special storytelling each Christmas season here on our American
Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show
and today and around the Christmas season, we bring you
special stories about a special time and the stories behind
the stories of our Christmas traditions. And today we're going
to focus on Christmas songs we love to sing and
(00:32):
these are fascinating stories that we hope will enrich your
holiday celebration. Ace Collins is the author of stories behind
the best loved songs of Christmas. Collins is an ace
at song history, and he's here to introduce you to
people you've never met, stories you've never heard, and meanings
you'd never have imagined.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Ears Ace, one of the best Christmas songs is Oh
Holy Night. You can back almost two hundred years to France,
when a local priest asked a parishioner who was the
commissioner of wines to write a poem for the Christmas
Eve service. He was writing in a carriage on the
way to Paris. He wrote the poem was so impressed
(01:15):
with it that he took it to a friend of
his who wrote operas, and he asked him, can you
write music to this poem? The man read the poem said,
it's a beautiful poem, but I think I'm not the
right guy to do it. He said, no, no, you
have this handle on music. I want you to write it.
So he put together some beautiful music to.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Go with it.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It was sung in a little church in France that
evening of Christmas Eve Mass, and people were so impressed.
It became a tradition in that church and within five
years had spread clear across France, and then it began
to spread across England. Ironically enough, in about eighteen forty
(01:55):
the French church threw it out of services because they
it was too secular, think of Holy Night being secutor.
But the whole point was this, the man who had
written the music to go with the lyrics was Jewish,
and they didn't want a Jewish man's music associated with Christmas. Well,
(02:17):
they didn't stop the English from singing it at Christmas time,
and then it came to the United States in the
eighteen fifties, not as a Christmas song, but as a
part of the abolitionist movement. Because in the third verse
there are a number of lines dealing with chain shall
he break, for the slave is our brother in his name,
(02:38):
all Opprussian shall cease. It was after the Civil War
that this song, Oh Holy Night, which is one of
the most beautiful of all carells, began to be a
part of the caroly movement here in the United States
and was brought into churches. It's also a song that
has two other great stories with it. One the Franco
Prussian War. On Christmas Eve, some French guy jumped out
(03:01):
of a fox hole when sang that song. He was
answered by a German who sang Silent Night, and the
two sides got together and had twenty four hours of
celebrations of Christmas. So it early was the song that
brought peace on earth. Let's go ahead. The nineteen oh
six Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a man named Fessenden is working on
doing something that everyone thought was impossible. He is going
(03:25):
to create a transmitter that is so strong it will
broadcast the human voice. Now Marconi even said this was impossible.
Edison said it was impossible. Alexander Graham Bell said you
can't have a transmitter that can do that. Yet, on
Christmas Eve nineteen oh six, Fessisenden tried his new invention
(03:47):
out and people who were in telegraph offices and ships
at sea, and newsrooms and weather bureau suddenly heard his
voice reading the second chapter of Luke rather than dot
dot dash dash. Now imagine what you must have felt
like to hear a human voice coming over these little
speakers when you had been told it was impossible. Then
(04:10):
Fesssenden picked up a violin and the very first song
ever played on radio was a Holy Ninth. I get
asked about the Twelve Days of Christmas a great deal.
And there's some controversy with this song. There are some
people that believe that the meaning of the Twelve Days
of Christmas was added after the song was written. It
was not written as anything but a kind of a
(04:32):
silly little Christmas song. And I don't know if it
was written as a code song or if it became
a code song, but I can tell you this, the
Catholic Church did use it. I've talked to Catholic historians.
I've talked in both the United States and Great Britain
as a code song when Catholicism was outlawed by the
(04:52):
Church of England, and this song the Twelve Days of
Christmas therefore had religious meanings that were attached to the
ricks Once again, were they written as code or did
the Catholic Church seize upon this and find a way
to make it a code. I think it was written
as code, but I don't know that. You know. The
(05:13):
argument's going to go back and forth on that for eternity.
None of us will ever know which is right and
which is wrong. But I can tell you what the
code words in this were and what they meant. A
partridge in a partree. The partridge is the only bird
that will lay down its life for its nest. That
partridge in a paratree, therefore, is about Jesus Christ. The
(05:34):
second Day of Christmas was two turtle doves. What are
the two turtle doves? Those are the Gospel, the Old
and the New Testaments. Three French hens. Well, that is
a very interesting things because that those birds represent faith, hope,
and love. It goes back to First Corinthians thirteen. Fourth
day of Christmas. Four birds calling. Well, what are the
(05:56):
four birds calling? They're the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John. Fifth Day of Christmas. Five golden rings. That's
the Torah, the five books of the Old Testament. Six
days of Christmas. Is my true Love gave to me
six geese elaine, what could that be? Well, you know,
those lyrics can be translated back to the first story
(06:17):
found of the Bible. Each egg represents a day when
the world was created, the seventh day, of course, when
it was hatched, seventh day of Christmas. My true love
gave to me seven swans a swimming What are those
seven swans a swimming?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Well, that's the.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Gifts of the spirit, prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading,
and compassion. Eight maids of milking. There was nothing lower
in England that was than being a milkmaid. And this
is the story of Christ coming not just for the King,
but also for the least of these and the milk
(06:54):
maid in England they were definitely the least of these.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to Ace Collins tell the story
of one of the best love Christmas songs of all time.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And by the way, just think about it.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And we take these things for granted, hearing a voice
through a speaker, and what are the first things ever read?
A passage from the Gospel, and of course a Holy Night,
the first song ever performed? And on Christmas Eve of
all days, when we come back more of the stories
behind the best loved songs of Christmas. Here on our
American Stories. Here are our American Stories. We bring you
(07:32):
inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories
from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.
But we can't do it without you. Our stories are
free to listen to, but they're not free to make.
If you love our stories in America like we do,
please go to our Americanstories dot com and click the
donate button. Give a little, give a lot, help us
(07:54):
keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories
dot Com. And we continue here with our American Stories
and our special Christmas edition. Let's pick up where we
(08:15):
last left off with eighth Colin sharing with us the
story of the coded Catholic Christmas Carol, the twelve Days
of Christmas.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Year's eighth Nine ladies dancing?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
What it was?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Nine ladies dancing? Those are the fruits of the Holy Spirit,
you know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faith, gentleness,
and self control. Ten lords of Leaping's pretty easy, you know.
That is the judges in the law. Ten lords. Well,
that's also the ten Commandments. The eleventh Day of Christmas.
(08:49):
My true Love gave to me eleven pipers piping. Those
are the disciples that took the story out to the world. Well,
you may say there's twelve disciples. Judas did not take
the word out, the eleven Discipleiples took the word out.
And finally the last one is twelve drummers drumming. Well
that you can tell that directly to the Catholic Church
because that's the Apostles creed and so that is the
(09:12):
story behind the Twelve Days of Christmas. And I think
it's one of the most fascinating stories of all because
it was essentially speaking a teacher's aid, and that makes
it very special when you look at history, and one
of the things we've got to recognize here, most of
our great carols and most of our great traditions came
(09:35):
about because of the missionaries, the early missionaries in the
Catholic Church as well. We owe them a tremendous debt
of gratitude for all the different things and elements of
Christmas that they brought to us from the cultures that
they went out and had missionary contact with. Getting back
to one of the little known things, there's so many
great stories about silent night. But did you realize this,
(09:57):
the little bitty church in Austria, or that little was
brought to life is Saint Nicholas, And that to me
is just you know, And we would not know the
story of Silent Knight, nor would we sing it, because
it was a one It was you know, it was
put together because the organ didn't work for one time
only somebody had had to fix the organ. And the
guy who came by to fix the organ, said, what
(10:18):
did you do for music? On Christmas? Even the priest
played him that song, He wrote down the lyrics, he
wrote down the music and took it everywhere he went
in Europe, fixing organs, and within twenty years it had
spread to the United States. And the priest who was
this little priest Joseph Moore and opened to Austria, had
no idea that anybody was singing his song, because he'd
even quit singing it. And he went to Colonne, Germany
(10:41):
one time, and there it was ringing from this cathedral
and he went, how did they find out about that?
You know? And so he died without ever being given
credit for writing the song. Yeah, but what an impact
this little priest who never went into anything except little
churches and Austin had on the world because that is
(11:01):
that Jesus loves me. Of all Christmas carols, you know,
everybody knows it. I love to look at what music
has meant to traditions because I don't think you could
have Christmas without the music.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I've always told people at my house, it wasn't Christmas
until you heard being sing White Christmas and Elvis sing
Blue Christmas. You had to have both of those songs
play before it really became Christmas. And the music of
the season was not always that important if you were
not a Catholic. Yes, Glory and Excessive Dais dates back
probably nineteen hundred years. It dates back to at least
(11:37):
one thirty. Part of that song does and songs like Oh,
Come O Come Emmanuel date back to the nine hundreds.
But most of our Christmas music is relatively new, and
it was birthed after the Civil War by something that
happened first in Victorian England and then spread to the
United States, and that was Christmas caroling. And suddenly, with
Christmas caroling, you had the opportunity to write new song
(12:00):
songs that people could sing as they went house to
house caroling in the eighteen hundreds and eighteen nineties, and
with the invention of the phonograph record that really took off.
One of the songs, though, that I think is the
is the most interesting of all of the songs that
created tradition like no other, was a song that was
written in Medford, Massachusetts and about eighteen forty and it
(12:23):
was written by a preacher's son for a Thanksgiving gathering
in the community. His father had assigned him the task
of creating a song for the Christmas choir, and he
was sitting at the only piano in Medford, Massachusetts, and
couldn't concentrate because of all the noise outside his door.
(12:43):
He went outside his door and these teenage boys were
attempting to impress teenage girls by having drag races with
a horse drawn sleigh. Okay, I mean that's what it
was on. This was what inspired him. He didn't go
in and write something for Thanksgiving. He wrote an eighteen
forties beach boys song. It's called jingle Bells. If you
(13:05):
listen to it, it is all about guys trying to
impress girls by going fast with their hot rods of
the period. Well, the people who came and that Thanksgiving
to hear this song, were so impressed with the children's
chore they begged for.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Them to put it in the.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Christmas service as well. So imagine this reverend Christmas service
and in the middle of it, these kids are singing
jingle Bells. Well, the people who visited from Boston and
New York City thought it was a Christmas song, and
they took it back to New York and Boston. Is
a Christmas song in the eighteen sixties. It has spread
all over the United States. Curier knives we're using it
(13:46):
for inspiration. One horse sleigh, the images of snow, the
images of children gathering, the image of writing in these
sleighs all goes back to the greatest Thanksgiving song of
all time, jingle Bells, which is nothing more than a
beach boy song, but it is that song that has
projected into our minds. Hollywood is used at TV, is
(14:07):
used at Heaven knows how many Hallmark movies have used
it now as a part of their important tradition. You
can't pick up a Christmas card without having the inspiration
of jingle bells all over it. And I think that's
one of the most interesting things about American Christmas is
that American Christmas was literally defined by a song about
(14:29):
drag racing one horse sleighs in New England and was
meant only for one Thanksgiving service. It's the greatest Thanksgiving
song of all time. But I mean, you think about it,
it is totally into Oh you hear something else that
is funny that goes with it too, that it ties
right into it. This song, jingle Bell Rock, the first
great rock and roll Christmas song. Jingle Bell Rock is
(14:53):
not about dancing. It's two guys from New England who
happened to live in New Orleans then wrote it about
a New England Christmas, about rocking along as a one
horse drawn sleigh and if you listen to the lyrics,
there's nothing about dancing or anything else. But when Brenda
Lee cut it at twelve years old, Owen Bradley was
the producer, and it became this monster hit. Everybody thought
(15:16):
it was a rock and roll song, and the guys
were initially appalled that people thought it was a dance
song until the royalty checks started coming in and then suddenly,
oh yeah, that's fine, we meant that all along, you know,
But it was you know, that is what you know,
jingle Bell Rock was all about. Yeah, you know, it
is so funny because seven of the top ten best
selling Christmas songs of all time were written by Jewish people.
(15:40):
White Christmas, Root Off the Red Nose, Reindeer, A Holly
Jolly Christmas, jingle Bell Rock, but Holly Jolly Christmas, Ruodolf
and jingle Bell Rock were all written by Johnny Marks.
And so you start and I ask a friend of
mine who was Jewish one time, I said, you know,
why are they there's so many great Christmas songs written
(16:02):
by Jewish people? He said, well, it was a Jewish
guy's birthday.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Of course I found out stories behind all of them,
and that's not the reason. But you know that were
still you know, that's a great line. I mean, that
is just really a good line. I started keeping track
about nine ten years ago of what the number one
song story that people ask about on Christian radio and
(16:26):
on secular radio. I was curious as to how they
lined up. The number one song story on secular radio
that people ask about is a Holy Ninth, which I
found found fascinating. The number one song on Christian radio
that people ask me about is Grandma got run over
by a raindeer.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Grian law got run over by rain there walking home
from our house Christmas. You can say there's no such thing.
Outsand lads, for me and Grandpa, we believe.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
The guy who wrote Grandma got run over by reindeer
had He was a Vanderbilt student.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And he had a band.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
And his band Betty, you can't write a song where
somebody dies in the first verse and have.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Anybody listened to us.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
That's so he did, and it became a hit for
several different groups, including Elmo and Patsy probably had the
biggest hit on You know Scott Bell who wrote that song?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
What is?
Speaker 4 (17:28):
What is?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
What did he do with his life? He's an air
traffic controller.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
She had hoof prim Order of Forehead, ndon criminit in
laws marks.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
On our back And you're listening to the infectious storytelling
of Ace Collins. It doesn't get any better, folks, when
we come back more of these great stories of our
best loved Christmas songs here on our American Stories.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
And we continue with.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Our American Stories and our special Christmas Edition, and we
do this each year around the Christmas holiday season, and
we do it because we love it, and we hope
you love it. But these stories are stories that we
think need to be heard, and well we have great
people telling them, and you're listening to Ace Collins tell
(18:29):
the stories behind the best loved songs of Christmas. Let's
pick up when we last left off year's Ace.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
You know I mentioned earlier that it's not Christmas till
you heard Being in Elvis, maybe Perry Como. But think
about this, Bing Crosby would probably be forgotten today without
all of his Christmas hits. It wouldn't be true of Elvis,
but it would be true of Being. There are other
people who had one hit. Bobby Helms, who was jingle
(18:58):
bell rock listen to every year, who otherwise would have
been lost forever. Dinah Shore charted four hundred and fifty times,
never had a Christmas song, so nobody ever remembers one
of the top charting artists of the nineteen forties and
early fifties because she didn't ever find that Christmas song.
Christmas songs make you immortal. If you're an artist, you
(19:20):
know that is just it's mind boggling. If you have
a Christmas hit, people are going to be listening to
you for the next hundred years. That's a big part
of the fact that your identity is going to be
hooked on to a large jury to a Christmas song.
If you're an artist from the thirties, forties and fifties
and they're still playing your stuff, they're playing your stuff
by a large because it's Christmas. And if you didn't
(19:43):
have that Christmas hit, they wouldn't be playing your stuff.
And so Christmas hits do make you, to a certain
degree immortal. You know, you'll come back every late November
and early December, and you'll be a part of Christmas
movies on Hallmark forever because the will play a blurb
of you singing one of those songs. And you know,
(20:06):
it's ironic that Elvis's big hit was Blue Christmas, when
his best Christmas song was why can't every Day? But
day will be Like Christmas, which is still played, but
not like Blue Christmas has played, and Blue Christmas has
been around for eleven years, but not twelve years before
Elvis cut it, and it had gone nowhere and not
been a major hit at all. Did Elvis cut it? Christmas?
Speaker 4 (20:33):
We love you.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
So bo? Who does think again?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
You echo.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Shuns over it.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
On a.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Christmas tree.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Oh it would be.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
The The family of the man who wrote that song
told me that blue Christmas means green at their house
because of the royalty checks to help us generates every
every Christmas for them. So yeah, you know Irving Berlin's
(21:22):
take on white Christmas when he told when he gave
it to Bing Crosby, Irving Berlin told Bing, I've writ
some great songs for this movie Holiday m but my
Christmas song is just not very good. And he played
it for being and said, oh my gosh, Irving, this
is perfect. And berlin'said, are you sure I don't think
it captures the captures what Christmas is all about? And
he said, no, no, don't change a word. We'll We'll
(21:44):
sing it.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Oh what.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Chris with every Christmas card?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
You know A great story behind silver Bells that was
in the Bob Hope movie A Lemon Drop Kid. Bob
thought he finally had a hit Christmas song, being had four,
he wanted one too, his best friend all these hits,
and so when he sang it in the movie, he thought, Okay,
I'm gonna go in this fall and cut this song
(22:34):
and release it for Christmas. Because the movie wasn't coming
out to Christmas anyway. Well, being heard listen to Bob
talking about the song, went into the studio, cut silver bells,
beat Bob to the marketplace with it, and bing Crosby
had to hit on silver bells and Bob still never
had a Christmas ht so his best friend beat him again.
(22:55):
Matthis is another one. You know. I mentioned Como because
Como's only listened to because he all as Christmas specials.
And you think about the song Christmas is amazing because
years before Rosa Parks broke the color barrier on the
buses and Jackie Robinson wrote the color barrier in baseball.
(23:16):
Nat King Cole took a Mel tourmat song and broke
the color barrier at Christmas with the Christmas song jazz
Nuts roasting on an open five, Jack Froz nipping at
you know, and you know, and Mel Tourmet had to
(23:40):
fight to take that song he had written and give
it to Nat King Cole because there were a lot
of radio stations across the United States that wouldn't play
music of a black man. And ultimately speaking, that song
was so powerful and that song touched so many lives
that in nineteen forty six, it really became the song
brought a bit of color to Christmas, and I think
(24:02):
that's one of the great stories. But Christmas songs that last,
you know, either have to have a different point of view,
like Mary, did you Know?
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Which is?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
You know? Mark Lowry's incredible song? Or Why Christmas? I'll
Be Home for Christmas, or released during World War two,
have Yourself a Married Little Christmas by Judy Garland. I'm
not sure they would have been huge hits without the
fact of what those songs meant to a nation divided
by a world war, with so many families separated during
(24:35):
from nineteen forty one to nineteen forty five. And so
I think the timing of when a song is released
do you hear what I hear? Released during the Civil War,
it's timing that has to do, I guess with everything
in life, but it's particularly true at Christmas. If your
song comes out a time when people are insecure and
(24:57):
they need something to latch onto the it's easy to
latch onto a Christmas song like White Christmas or I'll
Be Home for Christmas or have Yourself a Merry Little
Christmas as a secular prayer during that holiday season, and
I think, you know, I think that is one of
those songs have resonated for so long when you had
(25:18):
some really great Christmas songs that were written during that
same time that right before World War two or right
after World War two, that we don't we don't listen
to or sing anymore. Timing is everything when it comes
to holidays. The song stories are really good. I mean,
you know, you think about Gloria in excessus dais, and
(25:42):
that's a song that goes back to probably one thirty
a d. There was a church leader long before we
were celebrating Christmas that instructed all congregations in the Christian
Church at that time that whenever the second chapter of
Luke was read, that the congregation should sing Gloria x
esse Dall's. And therefore, at least part of that song
(26:05):
that we know as Gloria now existed eighteen hundred ninety
years ago. And if that is the case, and all
the different congregations knew that song, you know, then it
had to have been passed down earlier than that. So
it doesn't take much of a leap of faith to
(26:25):
think that song is probably predates that one thirty edict
by you know, anywhere from seventy to eighty years. And
therefore the guy who wrote that may have actually known Jesus,
and that makes that song very very powerful.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Indeed, great job as always to Greg Hanglick for putting
this storytelling together and forgetting us and bringing us.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Ace Collins, who is the.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Author of the story Worries behind the Best Loved Songs
of Christmas, And indeed what storytelling We just heard the
story of the stories behind the best loved Songs of Christmas.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Our special episodes of
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Our special storytelling each Christmas season here on our American
Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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