White Christmas
Steyn's Song of the Week

by Irving Berlin
10 December 2017

https://www.steynonline.com/4733/white-christmas

Audio Recording

Welcome to the first of our December celebrations of the big hits from the Christmas songbook.

We start with one of the most beloved seasonal numbers, which celebrates its 75th birthday this holiday season: In December 1942, the Number One hit on the Billboard chart was the very first record of this song by Bing Crosby. This special Song of the Week audio edition includes rare material from the Steyn archive and a special live performance of "White Christmas". Mark visits the home of Mary Ellin Barrett, daughter of the man who gave us "God Bless America", "Blue Skies", "Easter Parade" and many more. (That's Mary Ellin with her father at right.) Mark and Mary Ellin gather round Irving Berlin's old piano, the one with the special lever that enabled him to change key while still playing in F sharp. Mary Ellin recalls childhood Christmases in the Berlin household and the mistake her mother found in the verse of "White Christmas", as well as the tragic events of Christmas Day 1928 and the long shadow they cast over the Berlin family. And we'll hear how Irving Berlin's great song sounds on his very own keyboard.

All that plus vintage Bing, a wartime warbling by the composer himself, other Berlin songs including the heart-rending "When I Lost You" - and a special live performance by Monique Fauteux, one of the great treasures of Québec music, who last joined Mark for their bilingual rendition of "Roses Of Picardy".

To listen to this Song of the Week audio edition, simply click the link above. Incidentally, Mark highly recommends Mary Ellin's 1994 book on her father, Irving Berlin: A Daughter's Memoir. And don't forget you can read more about "White Christmas" in Mark's book A Song For The Season, personally autographed copies of which are available from the SteynOnline bookstore. Alternatively, if you're looking for a great Christmas present for a chum, you could get him or her a personally autographed copy of A Song for the Season as part of a Mark Steyn Club special Christmas Gift Membership.

Also for Mark Steyn Club members: If you disagree with Mark's podcast, feel free to make his days non-merry and non-bright all over our comments section. As we always say, membership in The Mark Steyn Club isn't for everybody, and it doesn't affect access to Song of the Week and our other regular content, but one thing it does give you is commenter's privileges, so get to it! For more on the Club, see here - and don't forget that limited-time Christmas Gift Membership.

Please join Mark for a different kind of audio pleasure later this evening when he reads Part Three of his serialization of A Christmas Carol.

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15 Reader Comments

Adan Farinas • Dec 18, 2017 at 10:07

What a beautiful segment...

Mary Robinson • Dec 17, 2017 at 17:28

Oops, my previous comments were in the generic category. So sorry.

Mary Robinson • Dec 17, 2017 at 17:26

Dear Mr. Steyn, I accidentally found you via Fox News this year and wish I had found you earlier. Yes, I understand you were not lost. (-: Thank you so much for your irreverence regarding all things politics. It has been a very frightening 9 years to be honest and I do not think the scary years are over. Thank the good Lord above, I and other chumps, voted Mr. Trump into office or else none of the take over would have been known. I loved your interview with Tucker when discussing the Macedonian content farmers, I was crying with laughter. It is so much fun to hear your input to questions on Tucker and to hear your answers to questions on Fox News. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Best Wishes,

Mary (Terry) Robinson

Debra Milligan • Dec 15, 2017 at 16:43

The death of a beloved near Christmas always casts a shadow on this time of year. But there is light in the darkness. The last Christmas with my father, when I was but ten years of age, taught me that lesson, and many others.

I played this song among others from Der Bingle this past week while making a chicken enchilada casserole and, as always, it is magical and luminous, because music that comes from the heart is the essence of the White Christmas that we all dream of.

May your days be merry and bright, Mr. Steyn, and may all your Christmases be white.

siberianmo • Dec 11, 2017 at 09:06

Perry Como's version of "When I Lost You," did it for me . . .

What a treasure Irving Berlin's music is . . .

Tom in Missouri

Fran Lavery • Dec 11, 2017 at 01:03

Another Song of the Week post that brought me to tears. What an insightful and touching portrayal of this great man, Irving Berlin. I will listen to this song now with a much deeper reverence than ever before. Thank you!

Robert • Dec 10, 2017 at 23:44

I just love Irving Berlin, but it was good to hear from Irving Berlin's daughter. It always amazed me how much Irving Berlin appreciated the Christian holidays - White Christmas is about snow, but it is more about home and love, and Easter Bonnet is not just about hats, but love and respect. But having a Christian wife and teaching the values of both religions to children gives special insight into the man and his lyrics. Berlin could not have known all the trauma that Hitler was bringing to the Jews in 1942, when White Christmas was performed, but he knew that it was important to "Think on these things" -- things that are positive, and praiseworthy, and true.

You have also captured why so many immigrants make the best Americans. The songwriters from that period comprise a national treasure.

Tom Osterman • Dec 10, 2017 at 23:08

It's always a pleasure to hear the story of the Song of the Week.

Tom Korte • Dec 10, 2017 at 21:13

Thank you for this.

Peter Jones • Dec 10, 2017 at 21:08

Fabulous!!!

Sol Cranfill • Dec 10, 2017 at 20:46

Did I ever enjoy that - thank you!

Judy Warner • Dec 10, 2017 at 19:25

That was just lovely. I have an Irving Berlin anecdote for you from my husband. He was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, and after he and his several hundred fellow prisoners came home in 1973, President Nixon invited them to the White House for a party in their honor. At one point Nixon brought Irving Berlin onto the stage and Berlin said, "I want to sing you my favorite song." And he did, a capella. He began:

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.

No one recognized what he was singing, but when he went into the chorus everyone started singing along, "God bless America, land that I love...." For a long time after that when the POWs had a reunion or other event, they would sing God Bless America.

Fran Lavery

Judy Warner • Dec 10, 2017 at 20:36

How special was that, Judy! What a welcome home gift to those prisoners! Warms my heart and brings tears to my eyes just thinking about them and how they must have felt hearing that song on that occasion.

Dan • Dec 10, 2017 at 19:17

White Christmas takes me back to the run up up to Christmas Holidays in my first year at Royal Military College, Canada or RMC. Christmas in first year ( Plebe year to my West Point friends) was the first real opportunity to go home for all us very young men who assiduously pretended not to be homesick. The nature of first year lectures, being huge groups in auditoria in a manner common to all universities meant that the whole Class was periodically gathered in one place. In the case of RMC this auditorium was both historic and well within earshot of the senior leadership of the College, also in the historic building. In an act, perhaps of immunity-insubordination we sang White Christmas with gusto every time we gathered in December so the Commandant and everyone could hear us.

Fran Lavery

Dan • Dec 10, 2017 at 20:24

Awesome, Dan!

White Christmas Steyn's Song of the Week

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White Christmas
Steyn's Song of the Week