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Welcome to this witness history podcast from the BBC World Service with me Rebecca

Kesby. Today the story of a simple song that's touched the hearts of millions and the man who made it famous

Bing Crosby's white Christmas written by Russian American Irving Berlin.

To this day it remains the biggest selling record of all time and by a pretty wide

margin. This is Howard Crosby. His uncle Bing Crosby is considered one of the most talented and prolific

musical entertainers of the 20th century.

It's just a simple ballad melody. There's nothing particularly unique about the musical structure of it, is sort of a

haunting melody that fits the spirit of the Christmas season.

But it also creates the feeling of longing for home, which became a powerful motivator during the

war years when so many soldiers were overseas.

It was on Christmas Day 1941, just a few days after the devastating Japanese attack on US forces at Pearl Harbor that Bing Crosby first performed

white Christmas on his radio show to a nation in shock and in fearful anticipation.

My father lived in Spokane, which was where the family home was, and people on the West Coast were gearing up for a Japanese invasion of the West Coast. There were pretty widespread expectations that the Japanese would be

launching a military invasion in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. You know, our Navy had been

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