Composition
Various stories of the song's origins give the place of composition as Savannah, Georgia, Boston or Medford, Massachusetts. An oft-repeated story is that he wrote it to be sung at a Thanksgiving program at his church in Savannah or Boston, but because of its instant popularity, it was sung again at the Christmas program. The copyright was granted in 1857, when Pierpont was serving as the organist for a Unitarian congregation in Savannah.
Overview
When it was originally published in 1857, Pierpont's song had a different chorus melody, which was more classical, even Mozart-like. The 1857 lyrics differed slightly from those we know today. (The original words are given below in square brackets.) It is unknown who replaced the chorus melody and the words with those of the modern version.
The first verse and chorus are the most often sung (and remembered) section of "Jingle Bells":
- Dashing through the snow
- In a one horse open sleigh
- O'er the fields we go
- Laughing all the way
- Bells on bob tail* ring (Or Hear our voices ring)
- Making spirits bright
- What fun it is to laugh and sing (Or What fun it is to ride and sing)
- A sleighing song tonight
- (chorus)
- |: Jingle bells, jingle bells,
- Jingle all the way;
- Oh! what fun [joy] it is to ride
*The horse's name is not Bob. As can be seen from the linked scan (above) of the original from the Library of Congress, the horse is described as "bob tail" or "bob tailed." This refers to the tail as being "bobbed"-- that is, cut shorter or docked, which was commonly done to the tails of carriage horses to keep them neat and reduce the chance of the tail getting caught in the reins.
Music historian James Fuld notes that the "the word jingle in the title and opening phrase is apparently an imperative verb. However, it is commonly taken to mean a certain kind of bell.
Although less well known than the opening, the remaining verses depict high-speed youthful fun. In the second verse the narrator takes a ride with a girl and loses control of the sleigh:
- A day or two ago
- I thought I'd take a ride
- And soon Miss Fanny Bright
- Was seated by my side,
- The horse was lean and lank
- Misfortune seemed his lot
- He got into a drifted bank
- And then we [we—we] got upsot*.
*19th century term and slang for "capsized" and "drunk or intoxicated" respectively
- |: chorus :|
In the next verse he falls out of the sleigh and a rival laughs at him:
- A day or two ago,
- The story I must tell
- I went out on the snow,
- And on my back I fell;
- A gent was riding by
- In a one-horse open sleigh,
- He laughed as there I sprawling lie,
- But quickly drove away.
- |: chorus :|
In the last verse, he picks up some girls, finds a faster horse, and takes off at full speed:
- Now the ground is white
- Go it while you're young,
- Take the girls tonight
- and sing this sleighing song;
- Just get a bob tailed bay
- Two forty* as [for] his speed
- [and] Hitch him to an open sleigh
- And crack! you'll take the lead.
*Two forty refers to a mile in two minutes and forty seconds at the trot, or 22.5 miles per hour. This is a good speed, and suggests the horse should be a Standardbred.
- |: chorus :|
Charts
| Diana Krall Version | |
|---|---|
| Charts (2005) | Peak Position |
| US Adult Contemporary | 5 |
| Kimberley Locke Version | |
|---|---|
| Chart (2006) | Peak Position |
| US Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | 1 |
In space
"Jingle Bells" was the first song broadcast from space, in a Christmas-themed prank by Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra, December 16, 1965. They sent Mission Control this report:- We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit... I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit...
The astronauts then produced a smuggled harmonica and sleighbells and broadcast a rendition of "Jingle Bells" (Smithsonian Magazine, December 2005 pp25ff).
Parodies and homages
Like many simple, catchy, and popular melodies, "Jingle Bells" is often the subject of parody. In addition to outright parody, many Christmas-themed songs use a snippet of notes from "Jingle Bells", usually from the beginning of the chorus, to establish a holiday theme. Some of these include:
- "Jingle Bell Rock" (Bobby Helms) - the best-known homage to "Jingle Bells", directly referencing the source song's lyrics. Originally recorded and released by Helms in a rockabilly style, "Jingle Bell Rock" has itself since become a Christmas standard. This version, however, is not grammatically correct, since the song's title is technically written "Jingle, Bells!" The song is commanding the bells to jingle, not referring to a type of bell.
- "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" (Elmo & Patsy), "Christmas Balls" (The Boulder Boys), "Santa Claus Is Watching You" (Ray Stevens), "Christmas in Hollis" (Run-DMC) - these and other Christmas novelty songs use variations of the "Jingle Bells" chorus as an opening; in addition, the chorus of "Grandma" uses slightly different chord patterns.
- A well-known children's playground song uses the "Jingle Bells" melody:
- Jingle bells, Batman smells,
- Robin laid an egg;
- The Batmobile lost its wheel,
- And the Joker got away!
- *This particular version was sung in Christmas with the Joker, an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
- *Bart Simpson sings this version on The Simpsons, the first time being on Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.
- *The last two lines were spoken in a JLU episode Panic in the Sky by Flash in regards to Batman's whereabouts.
- In the Scholastic children's novel Junie B., First Grader: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (p.s. so does May.), Junie B. Jones sings the playground version listed above with the lyrics:
- Jingle Bells,
- Batman Smells,
- P.S. So does May.
- I'd push May right off the sleigh
- And then I'd drive away.
- *This song was sung by Robert Goulet in The Simpsons episode $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling), but was circulated by children as far back as the early 1970s.
- "The Christmas Song" (Nat King Cole), "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (Bruce Springsteen), "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" (Elmo & Patsy), "Christmas at Ground Zero" ("Weird Al" Yankovic), "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" (Bart Simpson), "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (John Denver and the Muppets) - these songs all close with variations of the "Jingle Bells" chorus.
- "Rusty Chevrolet", a novelty song by Michigan musical comedy group Da Yoopers, uses the melody of "Jingle Bells". The song, originally in their 1987 album Culture Shock, can also be found in their 1994 compilation For Diehards Only. The group performs "Rusty Chevrolet" year-round in concert, despite it being a Christmas song.
- In The Brian Setzer Orchestra's version, the first occurrence of "one-horse open sleigh" in the chorus is changed to "'57 Chevrolet."
- In the cd "Pokémon Christmas Bash" song "Christmas Medley" there's a pokémon-ish version of the original song with some pokémon like Rapidash, Horsea, Slowpoke, Slowbro, Bellsprout, Magnemite and Seaking in the lyrics.
- Toward the end of A Christmas Story a group of waiters in a Chinese restaurant sing the chorus of this song to the Parker Family, of course mispronouncing some words as "Jinger Bears" and "shreigh", in a confusion of Asian stereotypes, as it is actually the Japanese who tend to convert L's to R's, whereas the L is a common vocal sound in Chinese.
- Mike McCready of American rock band Pearl Jam recorded a version of Jingle Bells for the band's 2007 Holiday Single. This version just features the chorus melody, with McCready doing Chuck Berry-esque fills in between.
Trivia
- In Ontario, Canada, sleigh bells are mandated by law, and persons breaking the law are subject to a $5 fine. The law states: "Every person travelling on a highway with a sleigh or sled drawn by a horse or other animal shall have at least two bells attached to the harness or to the sleigh or sled in such a manner as to give an ample warning sound". Horses' hooves on newly fallen snow are very quiet, and the sleigh runners make almost no noise.
- The "Jingle Bells" tune is used in French and German songs, although the lyrics are unrelated to the English lyrics. Both celebrate winter fun. The French song, titled Vive le vent ("Long Live the Wind"), was written by Francis Blanche and contains references to Father Time, Baby New Year, and New Year's Day. There are several German versions of "Jingle Bells"; the popular Roy Black version Christkindl and Christmastime.
- Although recorded by hundreds of artists, Kimberley Locke's 2006 version of "Jingle Bells" was the first to ever top Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.
- A plaque commemorating the "birthplace" of "Jingle Bells" is placed on the side of a building in the center of Medford Square in Medford, Massachusetts, USA.
- In Savannah, Georgia, USA, there is a marker commemorating the composition of "Jingle Bells" in a Church there where Pierpont served as music director.
- Nu-Metal band Korn has done a version of Jingle Bells titled "Jingle Balls"
Media
PDF: for bassoon, trombone, and violin (54KB, MIME type: application/pdf, Jinglebells.pdf)
See also
Footnotes
External links
- James Lord Pierpont - Discussion of the song's history
- Complete lyrics to "Jingle Bells"
- Story of the Singing Dogs
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Last updated on Sunday March 09, 2008 at 09:59:48 PDT (GMT -0700)
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Composition
Various stories of the song's origins give the place of composition as Savannah, Georgia, Boston or Medford, Massachusetts. An oft-repeated story is that he wrote it to be sung at a Thanksgiving program at his church in Savannah or Boston, but because of its instant popularity, it was sung again at the Christmas program. The copyright was granted in 1857, when Pierpont was serving as the organist for a Unitarian congregation in Savannah.
Overview
When it was originally published in 1857, Pierpont's song had a different chorus melody, which was more classical, even Mozart-like. The 1857 lyrics differed slightly from those we know today. (The original words are given below in square brackets.) It is unknown who replaced the chorus melody and the words with those of the modern version.
The first verse and chorus are the most often sung (and remembered) section of "Jingle Bells":
- Dashing through the snow
- In a one horse open sleigh
- O'er the fields we go
- Laughing all the way
- Bells on bob tail* ring (Or Hear our voices ring)
- Making spirits bright
- What fun it is to laugh and sing (Or What fun it is to ride and sing)
- A sleighing song tonight
- (chorus)
- |: Jingle bells, jingle bells,
- Jingle all the way;
- Oh! what fun [joy] it is to ride
*The horse's name is not Bob. As can be seen from the linked scan (above) of the original from the Library of Congress, the horse is described as "bob tail" or "bob tailed." This refers to the tail as being "bobbed"-- that is, cut shorter or docked, which was commonly done to the tails of carriage horses to keep them neat and reduce the chance of the tail getting caught in the reins.
Music historian James Fuld notes that the "the word jingle in the title and opening phrase is apparently an imperative verb. However, it is commonly taken to mean a certain kind of bell.
Although less well known than the opening, the remaining verses depict high-speed youthful fun. In the second verse the narrator takes a ride with a girl and loses control of the sleigh:
- A day or two ago
- I thought I'd take a ride
- And soon Miss Fanny Bright
- Was seated by my side,
- The horse was lean and lank
- Misfortune seemed his lot
- He got into a drifted bank
- And then we [we—we] got upsot*.
*19th century term and slang for "capsized" and "drunk or intoxicated" respectively
- |: chorus :|
In the next verse he falls out of the sleigh and a rival laughs at him:
- A day or two ago,
- The story I must tell
- I went out on the snow,
- And on my back I fell;
- A gent was riding by
- In a one-horse open sleigh,
- He laughed as there I sprawling lie,
- But quickly drove away.
- |: chorus :|
In the last verse, he picks up some girls, finds a faster horse, and takes off at full speed:
- Now the ground is white
- Go it while you're young,
- Take the girls tonight
- and sing this sleighing song;
- Just get a bob tailed bay
- Two forty* as [for] his speed
- [and] Hitch him to an open sleigh
- And crack! you'll take the lead.
*Two forty refers to a mile in two minutes and forty seconds at the trot, or 22.5 miles per hour. This is a good speed, and suggests the horse should be a Standardbred.
- |: chorus :|
Charts
| Diana Krall Version | |
|---|---|
| Charts (2005) | Peak Position |
| US Adult Contemporary | 5 |
| Kimberley Locke Version | |
|---|---|
| Chart (2006) | Peak Position |
| US Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | 1 |
In space
"Jingle Bells" was the first song broadcast from space, in a Christmas-themed prank by Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra, December 16, 1965. They sent Mission Control this report:- We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit... I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit...
The astronauts then produced a smuggled harmonica and sleighbells and broadcast a rendition of "Jingle Bells" (Smithsonian Magazine, December 2005 pp25ff).
Parodies and homages
Like many simple, catchy, and popular melodies, "Jingle Bells" is often the subject of parody. In addition to outright parody, many Christmas-themed songs use a snippet of notes from "Jingle Bells", usually from the beginning of the chorus, to establish a holiday theme. Some of these include:
- "Jingle Bell Rock" (Bobby Helms) - the best-known homage to "Jingle Bells", directly referencing the source song's lyrics. Originally recorded and released by Helms in a rockabilly style, "Jingle Bell Rock" has itself since become a Christmas standard. This version, however, is not grammatically correct, since the song's title is technically written "Jingle, Bells!" The song is commanding the bells to jingle, not referring to a type of bell.
- "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" (Elmo & Patsy), "Christmas Balls" (The Boulder Boys), "Santa Claus Is Watching You" (Ray Stevens), "Christmas in Hollis" (Run-DMC) - these and other Christmas novelty songs use variations of the "Jingle Bells" chorus as an opening; in addition, the chorus of "Grandma" uses slightly different chord patterns.
- A well-known children's playground song uses the "Jingle Bells" melody:
- Jingle bells, Batman smells,
- Robin laid an egg;
- The Batmobile lost its wheel,
- And the Joker got away!
- *This particular version was sung in Christmas with the Joker, an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
- *Bart Simpson sings this version on The Simpsons, the first time being on Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.
- *The last two lines were spoken in a JLU episode Panic in the Sky by Flash in regards to Batman's whereabouts.
- In the Scholastic children's novel Junie B., First Grader: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (p.s. so does May.), Junie B. Jones sings the playground version listed above with the lyrics:
- Jingle Bells,
- Batman Smells,
- P.S. So does May.
- I'd push May right off the sleigh
- And then I'd drive away.
- *This song was sung by Robert Goulet in The Simpsons episode $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling), but was circulated by children as far back as the early 1970s.
- "The Christmas Song" (Nat King Cole), "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (Bruce Springsteen), "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" (Elmo & Patsy), "Christmas at Ground Zero" ("Weird Al" Yankovic), "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" (Bart Simpson), "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (John Denver and the Muppets) - these songs all close with variations of the "Jingle Bells" chorus.
- "Rusty Chevrolet", a novelty song by Michigan musical comedy group Da Yoopers, uses the melody of "Jingle Bells". The song, originally in their 1987 album Culture Shock, can also be found in their 1994 compilation For Diehards Only. The group performs "Rusty Chevrolet" year-round in concert, despite it being a Christmas song.
- In The Brian Setzer Orchestra's version, the first occurrence of "one-horse open sleigh" in the chorus is changed to "'57 Chevrolet."
- In the cd "Pokémon Christmas Bash" song "Christmas Medley" there's a pokémon-ish version of the original song with some pokémon like Rapidash, Horsea, Slowpoke, Slowbro, Bellsprout, Magnemite and Seaking in the lyrics.
- Toward the end of A Christmas Story a group of waiters in a Chinese restaurant sing the chorus of this song to the Parker Family, of course mispronouncing some words as "Jinger Bears" and "shreigh", in a confusion of Asian stereotypes, as it is actually the Japanese who tend to convert L's to R's, whereas the L is a common vocal sound in Chinese.
- Mike McCready of American rock band Pearl Jam recorded a version of Jingle Bells for the band's 2007 Holiday Single. This version just features the chorus melody, with McCready doing Chuck Berry-esque fills in between.
Trivia
- In Ontario, Canada, sleigh bells are mandated by law, and persons breaking the law are subject to a $5 fine. The law states: "Every person travelling on a highway with a sleigh or sled drawn by a horse or other animal shall have at least two bells attached to the harness or to the sleigh or sled in such a manner as to give an ample warning sound". Horses' hooves on newly fallen snow are very quiet, and the sleigh runners make almost no noise.
- The "Jingle Bells" tune is used in French and German songs, although the lyrics are unrelated to the English lyrics. Both celebrate winter fun. The French song, titled Vive le vent ("Long Live the Wind"), was written by Francis Blanche and contains references to Father Time, Baby New Year, and New Year's Day. There are several German versions of "Jingle Bells"; the popular Roy Black version Christkindl and Christmastime.
- Although recorded by hundreds of artists, Kimberley Locke's 2006 version of "Jingle Bells" was the first to ever top Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.
- A plaque commemorating the "birthplace" of "Jingle Bells" is placed on the side of a building in the center of Medford Square in Medford, Massachusetts, USA.
- In Savannah, Georgia, USA, there is a marker commemorating the composition of "Jingle Bells" in a Church there where Pierpont served as music director.
- Nu-Metal band Korn has done a version of Jingle Bells titled "Jingle Balls"
Media
PDF: for bassoon, trombone, and violin (54KB, MIME type: application/pdf, Jinglebells.pdf)
See also
Footnotes
External links
- James Lord Pierpont - Discussion of the song's history
- Complete lyrics to "Jingle Bells"
- Story of the Singing Dogs
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