Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas

by Ace Collins

  For lo, the days are hast’ning on,

  By prophets seen of old,

  When with the ever circling years

  Shall come the time foretold;

  When the new heaven and earth shall own

  The prince of peace their King,

  And the whole world send back the song

  Which now the angels sing.

  An avid reader, Willis probably found Sears’s poem in the Christian Register. Earlier the composer had written a tune he called, simply, “Carol.” He discovered that this melody perfectly fit with the lyrics of the poem. Willis’s combination of music and words was first published in 1850 with the uninspired title, “Study Number 23.” A decade later, using a new, updated arrangement, Willis republished the song as “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night.” It is this second version that is still sung today.

  Within a decade of its second printing, “It Came upon the Midnight Clear” had been adopted for use in a wide range of denominational hymnbooks. As the tradition of caroling spread from New England and was adopted throughout the country, the song became a standard for roaming bands of Christmas choirs as well. Yet it wasn’t until the twentieth century that the carol would become one of the world’s most popular Christmas messages in song.

  During World War I, American troops sang “It Came upon the Midnight Clear” throughout France during the holiday season. Thus the song went to war and came home with a generation of men who made it a part of their holiday traditions. Twenty-five years later, U.S. troops took the song back to the front lines of World War II, and entertainers such as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore performed the haunting carol throughout the Pacific and Europe at U.S.O. shows. For homesick soldiers, no words seemed to voice their own prayers of “peace on earth” as well as those penned by Edmund Sears a century before.

  The lasting impact of the song is probably due in part to its last verse. In that stanza Sears begged the world to sing back to heaven the song of hope, peace, love, joy, and salvation. Although “It Came upon the Midnight Clear” has been sung millions of times since Sears first read his poem on a cold Christmas Eve in 1849, most Christians have not yet joined together to cure the world’s ills and bring peace to all men. The author’s charge, and indeed Jesus’ own call, remains largely unanswered.

  17

  JINGLE BELLS

  Jingle Bells” is perhaps the most well-known, most sung Christmas carol in America. For millions, this simple little song is as much a part of Christmas as Santa, reindeer, greeting cards, family dinners, evergreen trees, mistletoe, and presents. Yet in one of the season’s greatest ironies, “Jingle Bells” does not contain a single reference to the holiday with which it is associated and was actually written for a completely different day of celebration.

  Medford, Massachusetts native James S. Pierpont had always shown a great deal of musical talent. As a child he not only sang in church, but played the organ. As an adult, Pierpont continued to assist his father, the pastor of Medford’s Unitarian church, by working with the choirs and musicians. Around 1840 young Pierpont was given the assignment to write special music for a Thanksgiving service. As James sat in his father’s home at 87 Mystic Street contemplating his chore, through a window he watched young men riding their sleds down a hill. Bundling up to ward off the extremely cold weather, Pierpont stepped outside. Caught up in the moment, recalling the many times he had also raced sleds and sleighs sporting bands of merry, jingling bells, he not only watched, but also began to root for the participants. Within an hour he was congratulating the day’s winner.

  As he stepped back into the house, a melody came to him; while he warmed himself by the fireplace, James hummed the little ditty. Feeling as if this just might be the foundation for the music his father’s church program needed, Pierpont threw on his coat and trudged through the snow to the home of Mrs. Otis Waterman. Mrs. Waterman owned the only piano in Medford. When the woman answered the door, James matter-of-factly said, “I have a little tune in my head.” The homeowner was familiar with James, knew what he wanted, and immediately stepped aside.

  As he sat down at the old instrument and worked out the melody, Mrs. Waterman carefully listened, then said, “That is a merry little jingle you have there.” When he finished a few moments later, the woman assured James that the song would catch on around town. Later that evening, Pierpont combined his “jingle” with his observations of the day’s sled races and his memories of racing horse-drawn sleighs. Just that quickly a legendary song was born.

  James taught his “One Horse Open Sleigh” to the choir at the Medford Church. The fully harmonized arrangement was then presented at the annual Thanksgiving service. Since Thanksgiving was the most important holiday in New England at the time, there was a large audience when “One Horse Open Sleigh” debuted. The number went over so well that many of the church members asked James and the choir to perform it again at the Christmas service. Although a song that mentioned dating and betting on a horse race hardly seemed appropriate for church, “One Horse Open Sleigh” was such a smash at the second performance that scores of Christmas visitors to the Medford sanctuary took it back to their own communities. Due to the fact that they had heard it on the twenty-fifth of December, they taught it to their friends and family as a Christmas song.

  Pierpont had no idea his little jingle would have such infectious power; he knew only that folks seemed to like his “winter” song. So when he moved to Savannah, Georgia, he took “One Horse Open Sleigh” with him. He found a publisher for the song in 1857, yet it was not until the Salem Evening News did a story about the carol in 1864 that James truly understood he had written something special. By then, the song was fast becoming one of the most popular carols in New England, as well as rushing across the man’s adopted South. Within twenty years, “Jingle Bells” was probably the best known caroling song in the country.

  As one of the oldest American carols, this “Thanksgiving song,” with its rural imagery of snow, sleighs, and jingle bells, has impacted more than a century of Christmas images in greeting cards, books, movies, and scores of Christmas songs.

  Dashing through the snow

  In a one-horse open sleigh

  Through the fields we go

  Laughing all the way.

  Bells on bob-tail ring

  Making spirits bright

  What fun it is to ride and sing

  A sleighing song tonight.

  Chorus:

  Jingle bells, jingle bells

  Jingle all the way,

  Oh what fun it is to ride

  In a one-horse open sleigh, O

  Jingle bells, jingle bells

  Jingle all the way,

  Oh what fun it is to ride

  In a one-horse open 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,

  We ran into a drifted bank

  And there we got upsot.

  Chorus

  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 at me as

  I there sprawling laid

  But quickly drove away.

  Chorus

  Now the ground is white,

  Go it while you’re young,

  Take the girls along

  And sing this sleighing song.

  Just bet a bob-tailed bay,

  Two-forty as his speed,

  Hitch him to an open sleigh

  And crack! You’ll take the lead.

  Chorus

  Pierpont’s rather strange Christmas song has been recorded hundreds of times. Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Les Paul all landed on the charts with “Jingle Bells.” The most
popular recorded version of the song belongs to Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. The little merry jingle can also be found in numerous Hollywood films and television shows, and parts of it have even been used in other Christmas songs. Bobby Helms’s hit, “Jingle Bell Rock”—inspired in large part by “Jingle Bells”—has become another well-known modern secular holiday offering.

  Today “Jingle Bells” seems to be everywhere. Even though few people have even seen a one-horse open sleigh, millions have jingle bells hanging from their doors at Christmas. Most paintings of Santa show jingling bells adorning his reindeer. And scores of holiday songs and television commercials begin with the jingle of bells. Thanks to James Pierpont and a Thanksgiving request, when people see a picture of snow and a horse-drawn sleigh, their first thought is of Christmas.

  18

  JOY TO THE WORLD!

  Two brilliant songwriters—although they never met—together created one of Christmas’s most lasting songs. Each of these two musical icons ignored the established way of doing things and blazed new trails in every facet of their work. Moreover, the men who brought the song to the world were both trying to bring religious music into a new era. Since they lived a half a world away from each other and were separated by almost a century of time, little did either of these revolutionaries realize that through their collaboration they would create a timeless holiday classic for every age and every audience. As a matter of fact, Isaac Watts and Lowell Mason probably didn’t even know they had given the world a Christmas anthem at all.

  Isaac Watts was born on July 17, 1674, in Southampton, England. His father, also named Isaac, was a revolutionary protestant church figure in Britain. Strong-willed and stubborn, the elder Watts, a cobbler and tailor by trade, resided in prison when his son was born. He was a criminal nonconformist, having been found guilty of teaching radical ideas that were not approved by the Church of England or established scholars of the time. At a very early age it was obvious that the senior Watts had passed his free-thinking ways onto his son.

  Isaac Watts grew up worshiping at Southampton’s Above Bar Congregational Church. Most British children who displayed Isaac’s intellectual potential would have been assigned to Oxford or Cambridge; yet because he was not a member of the Church of England, Isaac was sent to the Independent Academy at Stoke, Newington. There—no doubt spurred on by his father’s example—he continued to display his rebellious nature. Not content to allow things to remain status quo, Watts questioned everything. He demanded to know why he or anyone else should be satisfied with the way things were when they could be so much better. Although he did well in his studies, Isaac left the Academy at the age of twenty after learning Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and returned home to live with his father.

  Like most young people, Watts found church music of the period to be uninspired and monotonous. He saw no joy or emotion in the standards sung by choirs and congregations. Yet while most of the new generation kept quiet, Isaac complained bitterly to his father about the archaic language of the psalms sung in church. The elder Watts, never one to stand on tradition, challenged his son to come up with something better. This challenge initiated a creative burst that would not end until Isaac had composed more than six hundred hymns and hundreds of other poems.

  “Behold the Glories of the Lamb” was the first Isaac Watts hymn. It was followed by scores of others. For a while, most of his work was met with contempt; no one wanted new translations of the Scriptures. Some even viewed young Watts as a heretic or tool of the devil. Yet he refused to give up. He constantly challenged those around him with new songs and new ideas on faith.

  Joy to the world! the Lord is come!

  Let earth receive her King;

  Let every heart prepare Him room,

  And heaven and nature sing,

  And heaven and nature sing,

  And heaven, and heaven and nature sing.

  Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns!

  Let men their songs employ;

  While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

  Repeat the sounding joy,

  Repeat the sounding joy,

  Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

  No more let sins and sorrows grow,

  Nor thorns infest the ground;

  He comes to make His blessings flow

  Far as the curse is found,

  Far as the curse is found,

  Far as, far as the curse is found.

  He rules the world with truth and grace,

  And makes the nations prove

  The glories of His righteousness,

  And wonders of His love,

  And wonders of His love,

  And wonders, wonders of His love.

  After spending several years making his living as a personal tutor, Watts became the assistant to Dr. Isaac Chauncey at Mark Lane Independent Chapel, London. Within three years the now twenty-six-year-old Isaac became the minister. Thanks in part to his work ethic, as well as his new ideas, the church grew rapidly. With his new position and the respect that accompanied it, Isaac was finally able to publish his songs.

  Through his hymns and theological writings, Watts became one of the best known clerics in England. Elizabeth Singer—a young woman deeply impressed by the minister’s inspired written work—wrote to Isaac and quickly established herself as his biggest fan. She proposed marriage via the mail. When he accepted, Singer anxiously raced to Isaac’s side. Rather than cementing a life-long love, this meeting ultimately focused the writer on his work, not on Elizabeth. Singer would later say, “He was only five feet tall, with a shallow face and a hooked nose, prominent cheek bones, small eyes and a deathlike color.” Unable to look at the man and see the brilliance that lay just underneath, the woman immediately went back home. Heartbroken, Watts poured himself into his writing, never again seeking the companionship of a woman.

  It was while studying Psalm 98 that Isaac was inspired to write his most famous song. In verse four Watts studied the phrase, “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.” Focusing on this verse and the five that followed it, Watts penned a four-stanza poem called “Joy to the World.” Set in a common meter, the poem was usually sung to the tune “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” Yet because Isaac had dared to rewrite the psalms, few British Christians of the time embraced the song.

  Watts did not give up in his efforts to make church music more meaningful to the common man. He continued, in the face of growing criticism, to write and publish new songs. The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship was released in 1719. This volume, filled with now well-known classics such as “We’re Marching to Zion,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “At the Cross,” and “This Is the Day the Lord Has Made,” would not only be slowly accepted by British Christians but would inspire others like Charles Wesley and John Newton to compose other new Christian songs based on personal experiences. There can be little doubt that Watts’s stubborn will and continued efforts to bring Christian music to the common man kept “Joy to the World!” in the public eye long after the writer’s death in 1748. It also began a revolution in modern Christian musical thinking.

  Forty-four years later, Lowell Mason was born in Orange, New Jersey. As a teen, he directed his church choir and taught at singing schools. Even though many thought of him as musically gifted, Mason didn’t see a way to make a living at it. In 1812 the young man moved to Savannah, Georgia, and began a career as a banker. But music hadn’t left his soul. In his spare time he also learned harmony, wrote original melodies, and became a student of the composer Handel. With the late German composer as his influence, the banker sent off a book of self-penned music and arrangements to a Boston publisher. When the material was matter-of-factly rejected because the American public wanted new folk music, not classical standards, Mason decided to use his talents only on weekends as a Sunday school teacher and organist at the local
Presbyterian church. Imagine his shock when, in 1827, he discovered that not only had his music found a publisher, but that the Handel and Haydn Society of Massachusetts had orders for fifty thousand copies of his songbook! Immediately leaving the South, Lowell Mason moved to Boston.

  For the next twenty years Mason was a mover and shaker in New England music circles. Like Isaac Watts, Lowell saw himself as a revolutionary; he was constantly battling the establishment with his own fresh ideas. Schools at the time ignored music, so using his own money, he initiated the first public school music program in Boston. He also became the city’s most important music publisher and would eventually write more than six hundred hymns, including “My Faith Looks Up to Thee” and “Nearer My God to Thee.”

  In 1836, Mason, whose love for the classical composers of Germany had not waned, composed a new melody inspired by two songs from Handel’s Messiah: “Lift Up Your Head” and “Comfort Ye.” Yet when Mason finished his work, he had something brand new, an exuberant ode he called “Antioch” after the Syrian city that was the point of departure for Paul’s first two missionary journeys. “Antioch” seemed to beg for words, but it would take the writer a while to find the message to go with his melody. Three years later, in a songbook entitled Modern Psalmist, Mason finally linked one of Watts’s psalms-inspired lyrics to his tune. This time the people were ready for “Joy to the World!”

  In 1911, Elise Stevenson, who had scored huge chart success during the early days of records with “Shine On, Harvest Moon” and “Are You Sincere?” joined Trinity Choir for a Christmas release of “Joy to the World!” The Victor Records single climbed to number five on the charts and marked the first time that either Watts’s or Mason’s music had appeared on popular, contemporary music playlists (though “Joy to the World!” would later inspire a rock music hit for a group called “Three Dog Night”).