White Christmas

When the song was integrated into the 1942 movie Holiday Inn, Berlin dropped this lighthearted introduction.

Bing Crosby first performed it on the radio on Christmas Day 1941, just 18 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

As millions of American GIs were deployed overseas into World War II, the song's "homesick" lyric ("just like the ones I used to know") took on a profound weight. Armed Forces Radio was flooded with requests for the track. Bing Crosby later recalled that performing the song for tearful soldiers at USO shows in Europe was one of the hardest things he ever had to do because of how deeply emotional it was for the troops.

Berlin, who could neither read nor write musical notation, dictated the song's words and melody to his musical secretary. Upon completing it, he famously walked into his office and confidently declared, "Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it's the best song anybody ever wrote." His prediction proved true: the track completely revolutionized the music industry, shifting the focus from selling sheet music to selling records and inventing the formula for modern commercial holiday music

The original 1942 master recording of "White Christmas" literally wore out because of the physical limitations of audio technology at the time and the unprecedented, relentless demand to stamp out new copies.

In the 1940s, music was recorded onto physical master discs (and later early tape systems), which were used to create the metal stampers required to press commercial 78 RPM vinyl and shellac records. Because "White Christmas" was an immediate, massive hit—especially with millions of World War II soldiers and citizens flooded with nostalgic longing—the record label, Decca Records, had to keep the master in near-constant production.

The Damage from Overuse The intense, repeated process of using the master to manufacture hundreds of thousands of commercial copies eventually took a toll. Over a few short years of constant "re-pressing," the physical grooves on the original 1942 master disc became severely worn down and degraded. The audio quality dropped significantly, resulting in a loss of definition, unwanted surface noise, and audible pops or hisses that did not meet quality standards. [1, 2] The 1947 Re-Recording By 1947, the 1942 master was unusable. To fix the problem, Decca Records brought Bing Crosby back into the studio on March 19, 1947, to re-record the entire track. [1, 2, 3] The Goal: They went to great lengths to make the new version an exact, note-for-note replication of the 1942 original. They even tracked down the original backing musicians (The John Scott Trotter Orchestra) and the Ken Darby Singers to recreate the exact musical arrangement. [1] The Result: The 1947 tracking session was successful, and this re-recorded version is the exact one that you hear on the radio, streaming playlists, and holiday movies today.

One thing special about the song is that although it is about a christian holiday Irving Berlin was Jewish. America was such a great country that Jews loved Christians and Christmas and could write a song about Christmas that Christians loved.