“Silver Bells” by Michael Bublé (ft. Naturally 7) Sunday, December 12, 2021
It's important during the creative process to get feedback and look at your work from every possible angle. Jim Adkins reportedly hates his band name, Jimmy Eat World, especially because of the band's acronym, J-E- you get the point. Today's song was released in 1950 and was inspired by the sound of the Salvation Army Santa Clauses ringing their tinkling bells. But when songwriter Ray Evans brought his work home, his wife said, "Are you out of your mind? Do you know what the word tinkle is?" And just like that, the song changed to "Silver Bells" and it wasn't the first Christmas song about pee. We'd have to wait for that, apparently. Google if you dare.
CITY SIDEWALKS, BUSY SIDEWALKS. First recorded by William Frawley and popularized in the film The Lemon Drop Kid sung by Bob Hope and Marylin Maxwell, "Silver Bells," like most Christmas standards has so many recordings, it's hard to choose a favorite. The song was recorded by Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, The Judds, Sleeping at Last, Steven Curtis Chapman, among others. The version that appears in most movies today is the Kate Smith version. I don't have a particular favorite version, but this morning I happened to hear Michael Bublé's version, an artist I can take in small doses these days. But when Bublé released his 2003 debut album, I was in the middle of learning the standards on guitar. Bublé revitalized Sinatra for a new generation, and his eponymous album was very good. The Canadian singer began his career as an independent musician, releasing three albums prior to being signed. He was raised on his grandfather's jazz records and dreamed of one day becoming a jazz singer himself. The fresh-faced 30 year old Canadian singer was featured in a Starbucks commercial featuring the song "Come Fly With Me" from his 2003 album, which helped break the artist into the American market just as his 2005 follow up It's Time was released. Singer-songwriter Norah Jones was also popular at this time, bringing back jazz for the early '00s. Bublé's albums after his major label debut in 2003 weren't different enough to keep me interested. He started writing original songs, starting with 2005's "Home." The last Bublé album I bought and listened to was his 2007 Call Me Irresponsible, which included more of an R&B take on the standards. Occasionally, Bublé is welcome in my playlist. It's nice to hear a rendering of a classic and it's nice to see his pretty face on the album cover.
SOON IT WILL BE CHRISTMAS DAY. If I think about "Silver Bells," I have to think about my mom singing this song, at least the "It's Christmas time in the city" part. "But we're in the country," I'd reminded my mom, annoyed. Growing up close to a small town, Christmas was pretty when we'd drive down the hill into the village, seeing all the pretty lights on the trees and houses. Sometimes in the winter, we'd drive to the bigger cities, passing the car exhaust-covered snow banks on our way to Binghamton or Syracuse where we would go to the mall and see all the boughs of holly and ribbons and gingerbread houses and Christmas trees and Santa Claus ringing a bell for donations. But "Christmas time in the city" finally made sense the year that we took a charter tour to Manhattan. This was either '96 or '97, the last or penultimate winter in New York. The bus ride took a long time--maybe four hours--but we didn't notice because we watched Christmas movies the whole way there and the whole way back. We watched movies my mom never let us watch like Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation and the remake of Miracle on 34th Street. When we arrived in the city everything seemed decorated. We went to Macy's, Time Square, and FAO Schwartz. This was the first time I had been in New York City and the city was much bigger than Orlando, the biggest city I had ever spent time in. For Christmas everything was blinking Christmas lights, crowds dressed in winter coats, hot dogs and pretzel stands. The daylight didn't last long that day. The sun sank behind the buildings early in the winter, but what was left was the glow of large billboards and Rockefeller tree. While I love a family Christmas, there is something magical about being enraptured in the spirit of the holiday in a city with millions of people.
Kate Smith version:
Dean Martin version:
Sleeping at Last Version:
Michael Bublé version:
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