Music / Merry Christmas

Ol' Kris Kringle? Nope, it's Der Bingle!

Merry Christmas is a 1945 album of Christmas Songs recorded by Bing Crosby, which has remained in print for over three quarters of a century now and is de facto the second-best-selling Christmas album of all time, behind only Elvis Presley's Elvis' Christmas Album (1957).

The album contains Crosby's Signature Song "White Christmas", which is itself the bestselling musical single of all time and the Trope Namer for Dreaming of a White Christmas.

Originally released by Decca Records as a set of ten songs on five 78 rpm records, all of which had been previously issued separately. It was subsequently reissued with additional songs in 1947 (again as a set of 78s) and in 1955 (as an LP record). The latter version was reissued in the CD era as White Christmas, and is most commonly distributed under that title today.

Not to be confused with the landmark 1994 album by Mariah Carey.

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Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Silent Night" (2:35)
2. "Adeste Fideles (Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful)" (3:11)
3. "White Christmas" (3:03)
4. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (2:17)
5. "Faith of Our Fathers" (2:54)
6. "I'll Be Home for Christmas (If Only in My Dreams)" (2:54)

Side Two

1. "Jingle Bells" (2:35) — with The Andrews Sisters
2. "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" (2:38) — with The Andrews Sisters
3. "Silver Bells" (3:02) — with Carol Richards
4. "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (2:48)
5. "Christmas in Killarney" (2:43)
6. "Mele Kalikimaka" (2:54) — with The Andrews Sisters

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I'm dreaming of the following tropes...

• Away in a Manger: "Silent Night", "Adeste Fideles'' and "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" all address the glory of Jesus' birth.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Adeste Fideles", Latin for "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Mele Kalikimaka", Hawaiian for "Merry Christmas".
• Christmas Songs: The album contains 12 classic Christmas songs.
• Concept Album: You could call it a very early forerunner in the sense that all songs are built around one theme: Christmas and New Year. On the other hand none of them are related to each other.
• Cover Album: All songs are traditionals or were written by singer-songwriters.
• Deliver Us from Evil: "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"
  Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas Day
  To save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray.
• Did I Mention It's Christmas?: Every song mentions it at least once, or alludes to it.
• Dreaming of a White Christmas: "White Christmas" is the Trope Namer.
• Everyone Is Christian at Christmas: Justified in the sense that this album was made at a time when most of the U.S. record-buying public were Christian. People of other faiths weren't bothered that much by it, otherwise it would have never sold millions of records worldwide. Also, Irving Berlin, the author of "White Christmas", was Jewish.
• Face on the Cover and Floating Head Syndrome: Bing's face, against a white background.
  • An image, incidentally, which was lifted from a print advertisement for Chesterfield cigarettes◊.
• God Needs Prayer Badly: "Faith of Our Fathers".
  Faith of our fathers, holy faith
  We will be true to thee till death
• Gratuitous Latin: "Adeste Fideles" starts off in Latin and then switches to English.
• Greatest Hits Album: When this album was released in 1945 most of the songs had been released as musical singles before. This record compiled them all together for the very first time.
• Jesus: Naturally the subject of the religious carols.
• Let There Be Snow: "White Christmas".
  And may all your Christmases be white...
• Location Song: "Christmas In Killarney". It paints an idyllic picture of celebrating the holidays in the green countryside of this little Irish town.
• Oireland: "Christmas in Killarney" brings up all the Irish clichés you can think of.
• Santa Claus: He's coming to town in "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town".
• The Three Wise Men: Mentioned in "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen".

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