As an aficionado of Christmas/Seasonal music, I think the real heyday for new songs was the 1940s, so with that in mind, from now until Christmas, I'll be sharing some of my favorite songs/records!
One thing to keep in mind is that I'm only counting songs that were introduced in the 1940s, so while there were solid renditions of, for example, "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and "Winter Wonderland" cut in the 1940s, those songs are from the 1930s and won't be on the list.
Also, in order to get more songs in here, I won't include any that I've already spotlighted, including some biggies like "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" by Spike Jones. But I'll mention them as we go along.
I'll go in chronological order by year and won't go too far off-topic, but I'll add my usual this and that as we go!
So, without further ado, we start off in 1941, with a mood setter; "Snowfall" by Claude Thornhill and his Orchestra on Columbia Records:
I think that's just a tremendous record!
"Snowfall" was the theme of Claude Thornhill's band and it was written by the enigmatic pianist/arranger/bandleader.
If pressed, I might say that the Thornhill band was the most underrated of its era. It had a unique sound and was great at creating moods.
Here's another record by the band, this one from 1942:
Two things about this record of "There's a Small Hotel" that make me feel smart: The first is that I recognize the little snippet of "Snowfall" at the very beginning and the second is that I "get" that the vocal group is called "The Snowflakes" because of the band's theme!
If you ever need help with 80 year old pop culture trivia questions, I'm your man!
Anyway, I don't think anyone else recorded "Snowfall" in the 1940s, as one band wouldn't record another band's theme song unless that song was a big hit song on its own.
It seems that "Snowfall" had to wait until the mid-1950s when there were a lot more LPs coming out to garner non-Thornhill recordings.
I think the first mainstream album to use "Snowfall" as a seasonal tune was Jackie Gleason's 1956 "Merry Christmas" LP on Capitol records:
The haunting arrangement rivals Claude Thornhill's own!
Also recorded in 1956 was this very different take by Pete Rugolo on his Mercury LP "Music for Hi-Fi Bugs":
That's a very cool mid-1950s sound, but those bugs are too realistic!
At some point "Snowfall" acquired lyrics, which I understand were written by Ruth Thornhill, Claude's wife.
The first instance of a vocal arrangement I can find is also from 1956, on the "Winter Wonderland" LP by the Ray Charles Singers on MGM Records:
That's very nice, sticking fairly close to the original.
I see that Mr. Charles is credited as one of the songwriters on the label, not sure what that's all about.
In any event, Claude Thornhill must have enjoyed the royalty checks he started getting in 1957!
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