Bing Crosby and Christmas

With the possible exception of Gene Autry, there has probably never been an entertainer so closely associated with Christmas as Bing Crosby. Not only was his biggest hit a Christmas song ("White Christmas"), but that song remains the biggest selling single of all time. Over the years Bing Crosby appeared in numerous radio and television Christmas specials and recorded a number of Christmas songs and albums. In the mid-20th Century, it may well have been difficult to picture Christmas without Bing Crosby.

While "White Christmas" looms large in Bing Crosby's legend, his association with Christmas began long before its release in 1942. Bing Crosby's long association with Christmas began in 1935 with the Christmas edition of The Kraft Music Hall, which Mr. Crosby co-hosted with Paul Whiteman at that point. The Kraft Music Hall would include an annual Christmas edition every year that Bing Crosby hosted. In 1946 Bing Crosby moved to the show Philco Radio Time, where he also hosted an annual Christmas edition. Bing Crosby would have different shows from the late Forties into the Fifties, including This is Bing Crosby (1948-1960), The Bing Crosby-Chesterfield Show (1949-1952), The Bing Crosby Show for General Electric (1952-1954), and The Bing Crosby Show (1954-1956). On each of these shows Christmas episodes were annual traditions. After Bing Crosby's last radio show ended in 1956, he continued to do Christmas specials on radio each titled A Christmas Sing with Bing. Starting in 1946, these annual radio specials would last until 1962.

Strangely enough, while Bing Crosby's radio shows had featured Christmas episodes starting in 1935 and afterwards he hosted six years' worth of Christmas specials on radio, he was a relative latecomer when it came to Christmas specials on television. He was a guest on the 1957 Christmas edition of The Frank Sinatra Show, "Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank." He would not host his first Christmas television special, The Bing Crosby Christmas Show, until 1961.

After The Bing Crosby Christmas Show in 1961, Bing Crosby would appear each year in either a Christmas special or a Christmas episode of a television show for the next sixteen years.  In 1964 rather than a Christmas special, he appeared in a Christmas episode of his sitcom The Bing Crosby Show, "The Christmas Show." That having been said, descriptions of the episode make it sound as if it differed very little from his Christmas specials. In 1965, 1966, 1967, and 1968 he hosted the Christmas episodes of the variety show The Hollywood Palace. Interestingly enough, in 1968 this put Bing Crosby in competition with himself. While The Hollywood Palace was airing on ABC, his movie White Christmas (1954) was airing on NBC Saturday Night at the Movies! Bing Crosby continued to host his own Christmas specials until the final one in 1977. That Christmas special, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, may remain his most famous Christmas special of al. Filmed in London in September 1977, among his guests was David Bowie, with whom he performed the duet "Peace on Earth"/"Little Drummer Boy." "Peace on Earth"/"Little Drummer Boy" would be released as a single in 1982 by RCA. It peaked at no. 3 on the UK single chart and received a good deal of airplay on American radio stations. It was only a few weeks after Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas had been filmed that Bing Crosby died of a massive heart attack at age 74. The special aired posthumously, bring an end to the tradition of Bing Crosby Christmas specials that had existed since the 1930s.

Of course, while Bing Crosby hosted Christmas specials on radio and television for years, he also recorded a large number of Christmas songs. The first Christmas song he ever recorded was a version of "Silent Night" in 1935. That initial version remained unreleased because Mr. Crosby felt it was not right for an entertainer to make money from a religious song. "Silent Night" was then re-recorded and it was arranged for all the money made from it to go to charity. This version of "Silent Night" went to no. 7 on the Billboard singles chart.

Bing Crosby would not record much in the way of Christmas songs until 1942, when a holiday-themed movie would bring him his biggest hit. Holiday Inn (1942) featured the songs "Happy Holiday" and "White Christmas." Bing Crosby had actually performed "White Christmas" eight months before the movie was released. He first performed it on The Kraft Music Hall on December 25 1941. Curiously, at the time it was thought "Be Careful It's My Heart," performed during the Valentine's Day sequence in Holiday Inn, would be the big hit from the movie. Initially "Be Careful Its My Heart" did perform the best of the two songs, making it all the way to no. 2 on the Billboard Pop chart. As the months grew closer to December, however, "White Christmas" began to pick up steam. In 1942 it ultimately spent eleven weeks on the Billboard Pop chart. It would return to the Billboard charts twenty different times before Billboard created a separate holiday chart. It became the biggest selling single of all time and remains so to this day.

Holiday Inn and "White Christmas" marked Bing Crosby's most prolific period recording Christmas songs, from 1942 to 1955. In 1943 he would have another hit that would become a Christmas standard, "I'll Be Home for Christmas." was written by lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent, who had in mind the men and women serving overseas during World War II. The song struck a chord and remained on the Billboard Pop charts for eleven weeks, peaking at no. 3. Bing Crosby would have several more major hit Christmas songs, including his own version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "A Marshmallow World," his version of "Silver Bells," among others.

Bing Crosby also recorded Christmas songs with the Andrew Sisters. The first record they recorded together was "Ciribiribin (They're So in Love)" in 1939. In 1943 Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters recorded their first Christmas song together, "Jingle Bells." They later recorded  "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" in 1947, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and "Here Comes Santa Claus" in 1949, and "Poppa Santa Claus"  and "Mele Kalikimaka" in 1950.

After 1955 Bing Crosby recorded Christmas songs less frequently, although he would continue to release Christmas albums. His first was Merry Christmas in 1945. It was followed by Christmas Greetings in 1949, A Christmas Sing with Bing around the World in 1956, I Wish You a Merry Christmas in 1962, and others. Of course, compilation albums of his Christmas songs have continued to be released even after his death.

It is mark of how strongly linked Bing Crosby is with Christmas that his songs his songs continue to make the Billboard Holiday chart. In 2011 Billboard created the holiday chart, and since then multiple Bing Crosby songs have hit the chart each year. It should come as no surprise that "White Christmas" has made the Billboard Holiday chart every year since its creation. And while it is more associated with Perry Como, so has Bing Crosby's version of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." Bing Crosby's Christmas television specials remain available on DVD and some have found their way onto YouTube. Both Holiday Inn and White Christmas continue to air on multiple television outlets each year. Forty four years after his death, Bing Crosby is still linked to Christmas in many people's minds.