Carols annotated

Holiday music for centuries has been a part of Christmas, and is now as ubiquitous as decorations. We all have songs in our heads and hearts this time of year, and the world is better for it.

No season of the calendar nor subject of social celebration weaves a musical mosaic as wide-ranging as Yuletide.

It’s not unusual at all, while listening to the radio or browsing a store, to hear a carol dating back 500 years immediately followed by a modern melody composed within the last decade (or sooner).

But ubiquity can breed familiarity that eclipses understanding. It’s a storied time of year, and the stories behind the songs we hum, whistle and sing along to are interesting and often surprising.

Enjoy these singers’ digest notes, with hopes they will enrich your holiday.

“Good Christian Men, Rejoice.” The early Latin version of this song and others (such as “Christ was Born on Christmas Day”) date back to a collection of holiday hymns published in 1582. But music was linked to Christmas much earlier than that, with liturgical litanies and chants for the Feast of Nativity dating back to the 10th century and before.

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” sounds older than it really is, because its tune can be traced to the 15th century. Its lyrics, at least in their original Latin form, first appeared around 1710.

“Joy to the World” is one of Isaac Watts’ many contributions as the patron saint of English hymnody. Based on Psalm 98 and published in 1719, this famous and well-loved carol was not originally intended as a purely Christmas hymn. Its words fit the holiday, however, and once paired with a majestic melody in the early 19th century, it has become an all-time favorite.

“Hark the Herald Angels Sing” was penned by Charles Wesley in 1739, whose prolific repertoire of compositions comprised 6,000 hymns. Two factors catapulted this carol to enduring prominence. First, the wise revision of Wesley’s original opening couplet, which was “Hark, how all the Welkin rings;” and second, setting it to the tune of a Felix Mendelssohn’s cantata.

“O Come, All Ye Faithful,” though written by Englishman John Francis Wade, was originally published in Latin (“Adestes Fidelis”) in 1751, as a commemorative tribute to the shepherds who went to adore the Christ-child. Despite non-rhyming lyrics and an irregular meter, the translated version from 1841 remains exceedingly popular today.

“God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” features an oft-misplaced comma, caused in no small part by Charles Dickens’ mispunctuation when he mentioned the song in A Christmas Carol. Even so, “rest you merry” was a familiar phrase for solace when this song was written in the early 18th century, and its tidings of comfort and joy were never addressed to “merry gentleman.”

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” was inspired by Phillip Brooks’ Christmas Eve pilgrimage to the birthplace of Jesus in 1865. At that time, Bethlehem’s population was around 3,000, much larger than at the time of the Nativity (fewer than 1,000) and much smaller than today (nearly 30,000).

“Jingle Bells” is one of a few “accidental” carols in that when written in 1857, it had nothing to do with Christmas and was instead just a musical reminiscence of a snowy winter. James Pierpont reportedly wrote the song for a Thanksgiving Sunday School presentation. Its popularity inspired an encore at Christmas, and the rest is holiday history.

“Sleigh Ride” and “Let it Snow” similarly became linked with Christmas primarily through weather, but neither was composed to be a holiday song.

“Up on the Housetop” is the first song in which Santa Claus appeared as the focus. Benjamin Hanby’s 1864 lyrics were inspired by Clement Clarke Moore’s descriptions in his 1823 poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”

“White Christmas” is one of several 20th century carols featured in movies (1942’s Holiday Inn), and Bing Crosby’s well-crooned version of Irving Berlin’s masterpiece produced the best-selling song of all time: in excess of 50 million copies.

“Silver Bells,” which first appeared in The Lemon Drop Kid in 1951, was written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and dubiously titled “Tinkle Bells” at first, before Livingston’s wife brought up the slang meaning behind “tinkle.”

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” had its genesis as an advertising gimmick, when Montgomery Ward assigned copywriter Robert May to come up with a children’s Christmas promotional book (preferably featuring an animal). May’s brother-inlaw happened to be Johnny Marks, who adapted the story and wrote the words and music in 1949 that resulted in the second most popular holiday song of all time.

“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” was Marks’ second seasonal smash, 10 years after Rudolph, which was forever memorialized in a fun rendition by Brenda Lee — who was only 13 at the time.

The list of holiday songs grows every year, and with more and more radio stations switching to 24/7 Christmas music after Thanksgiving (last count was more than 500 nationwide), they all get more airplay.

Before you credit those stations as altruistic, consider this factoid: Ratings double when stations adopt the all-holiday music format. Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.