Old Chestnuts Never Die
I NEVER FAIL to be astonished by the imagination of songwriters. Whether it be the factory-farm occupants of the Brill Building in New York - the original Writers’ Block? - or those of a bygone age who sat at a piano and were visited by the muse, their powers of imagination are heartening for us mere mortals.
At this time of the year there are a few standard Christmas songs which have invaded public consciousness to such an extent that, in a walnut shell, Christmas wouldn‘t be the same without them. So here‘s a couple of examples of the songwriter’s imagination to see us over the festive period, beginning with the best-known of them all - Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.
Irving Berlin was born in Siberia in 1888, the son of a Russian Jewish family who emigrated to the USA when he was five years old. He became a songwriter in New York’s Tin Pan Alley and his catalogue of hit songs began with Alexander’s Ragtime Band.
In 1940 he was working in Hollywood when he wrote White Christmas, which was sung by Bing Crosby in the 1942 musical Holiday Inn. Incidentally, there’s an opening verse to the song which is seldom performed:
|
|
|
“The sun is shining, the grass is green, the orange and palm trees sway
There’s never been such a day in Beverly Hills, LA
But it’s December the twenty-fourth and I am longing to be up north …”
Hmmm, doesn’t conjure up Scotland to me; how about you? But few knew how Berlin felt about Christmas. His first wife died of typhoid just five months after they were married. His second wife, Ellen Mackay, was from a wealthy Catholic family and their mixed marriage was a scandal at the time. The New York press hounded them and Ellen Mackay’s father disinherited her.
Their first child, Irving Jr, was three weeks old when he died on Christmas Day 1928. The Berlins had three more children - all girls - and for their sake they put up a tree and gave presents each Christmas but after the girls left home, the Berlins celebrated Christmas no more.
On a happier note, let’s have a look at The Christmas Song, better known by its opening line of “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire …”
It was co-written by Mel Tormé, one of the most enduring singers from the big band era. He began singing for his supper at a Chicago restaurant when he was four and was working the vaudeville circuit soon after. He became a child actor on radio and began writing songs in his teens.
In the early 1940s, he left high school to become a singer, drummer and arranger with Chico Marx’s band. He wanted to be a jazz singer but his publicist sold him as a crooner, giving him the nickname of The Velvet Fog.
The Christmas Song was first recorded in 1947 by Nat King Cole, and Tormé and lyricist Robert Wells wrote the song on a sweltering day in July. Tormé recalls seeing a notebook on Wells’ piano with four lines written in pencil. They started: Chestnuts roasting ... Jack Frost nipping ... Yuletide carols ... Folks dressed up like Eskimos. He says: “Bob didn’t think he was writing a song lyric. He said he thought if he could immerse himself in winter he could cool off. Forty minutes later that song was written. I wrote all the music and some of the lyrics.”
And let’s finish with a lovely anecdote. The Farmer’s Market is a tourist spot in Los Angeles. On a weekday in winter, not long before Christmas, a small choir of young people is serenading shoppers.
It is pointed out to their leader just who the man sitting at a table engrossed in the newspaper is. “That’s Mel Tormé down there. Do you know who he is?” The singer shakes his head. “Do you know The Christmas Song?“ Blank. “That’s the one that starts: Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...” He gets excited: “Oh yes! Is that what it’s called?” “That’s the name, and that man wrote it.”
The leader returns to the choir for a brief huddle, then they stroll down towards Mel Tormé and begin singing the song directly to him. A big smile forms on Tormé’s face, and the faces of the shoppers, many of whom know who he is and seem aware of the significance of singing that song to him.
As they reach the end of the song, he gets to his feet and sings a chorus solo, before the choir - official and unofficial - join him on the closing lines. Oh to have been there!
My best wishes go with you over the festive period, and if you’re raising a glass to worthy champions, remember the songwriters.
|
