Dreaming Of A White Christmas

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2016

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

White Christmas holds the Guinness World Record for most singles sold and has been covered over 500 times. Pop stars from Elvis to Ella have recorded it, with interpretations from doo-wop to country to punk rock. With new covers each year, it seems listeners have not grown tired of this Tin Pan Alley chestnut. We use our scientific formula for holiday hit success to break down what makes this song so timeless. FeaturingBing Crosby - White ChristmasThe Beatles - Christmas Time Is HereWhitney Houston - Have Yourself a Merry Little ChristmasJackson 5 - Santa Clause Is Coming to TownThe Beatles - In My LifeFrank Sinatra - White ChristmasKenny G - White ChristmasNashville Cast - White ChristmasLady Gaga - White ChristmasThe Drifters - White ChristmasElvis - White ChristmasElla Fitzgerald - White ChristmasBeach Boys - White ChristmasDean Martin - White ChristmasKaty Perry - White ChristmasKelly Clarkson - White ChristmasRascal Flatts - White ChristmasMichael Bolton - White ChristmasMichael Bublé and Shania Twain - White ChristmasCarol Of The Bells by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Artist: http://audionautix.com/ Deck the Hall, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Angels We Have Heard by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?collection=004&page=1Artist: http://incompetech.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Switched On Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding and I'm musicologist Nate Sloan.
0:12.8	Nate, it is my favorite time of year. Do you know what that is?
0:17.0	It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's the time of the year that we get to talk about our
0:20.7	favorite holiday songs because they've been playing now for a couple of weeks. They go for six
0:25.6	weeks or so from Thanksgiving until the new year and they're just wonderful. I couldn't agree more
0:31.2	and the one we are discussing today is like the Ur Holiday song. It is the Uber holiday song. It
0:39.8	is the Mount Olympus of holiday songs. It actually might be just the biggest song period.
0:48.1	Today we're going to be talking about White Christmas which actually holds the Guinness World Record
0:54.5	for most singles sold. And then he saw it. Wow. Wait. Rewind that back for me one more time.
1:01.0	White Christmas originally recorded by Bing Crosby and having been covered over 500 times
1:06.4	is the number one selling single of all time. Okay, I'm just wrapping my head around that fact.
1:12.0	So this is like in front of the Beatles.
1:14.5	When he used to
1:26.6	Michael Jackson.
1:32.6	Like White Christmas. Technically it's tied with Elton John's candle in the wind.
1:37.7	Oh wow. Okay. Because of technical errors about when the charts formed.
1:43.6	Interesting. But it has sold more singles over 50 million singles. That's bananas.
1:49.4	So today what I want to do is ask the question why is it so successful? It was in a Hollywood film
1:55.8	originally. But I want to suggest that we can go beyond the success of Hollywood marketing
2:00.7	and look at what internally in the song makes it so adaptive, so endlessly lovable.
2:07.2	Just the biggest hit possible. Right on. Let's dig into White Christmas.
2:12.5	The number one selling single of all time. That's so crazy. And there are so many additions that
	...

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