White Christmas

As the nation grapples with the putative messages contained within “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” I thought it would be nice to pause for just a moment.

The #MeToo Movement is out of control, and has now succeeded in banning an otherwise innocent and, for its time, a quaint and reassuring winter song (it isn’t a Christmas song, by the way).  They want the song banned because its lyrics suggest that consent is not forthcoming and the “wolf” continues his assault. An alternative interpretation would be that the man is being a gentleman and offering a safe harbor from the ravages of a bad storm. And, lest we forget, no less than the Academy Awards folk thought so much of the composition, that they awarded it the 1949 Oscar for Best Original Song.

Books, of course, will be next.  Hitler (wherever he is) is sure to be smiling.  Banning books was, after all, his specialty. 

But I digress.

So, here are some words about the best selling songs of all time. I begin with this:

The best-selling single of all time is the 1942 Christmas classic, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.” Although the song was sung by Bing Crosby for the movie Holiday Inn, the tune was penned by composer Irving Berlin.

Now, get this: Knowing what he’d just written, and perhaps foreshadowing the success of the song, Berlin is said to have told his secretary, “Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written—heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!” The MeToo idiots will surely take umbrage at a man barking orders to his, we assume, female secretary. But so it goes.

Anyway, that’s a pretty bold proclamation. But, if you’d like to argue with Mr. Berlin, you might want to take a look at the sales records first.

The Bing Crosby version of “White Christmas” has sold over 50 million singles.  If you factor in other artists covering the song, it has sold over 100 million singles worldwide since it was first released in 1942.

By comparison, the next most popular single of any genre is Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind″ tribute to Princess Diana, with 33 million sales.

There’s clearly something magical about Christmas songs when it comes to sweeping the singles charts. Looking through the top 25 singles of all time yields five Christmas songs:

• the aforementioned “White Christmas” with 31 million in sales;
• Bing Crosby’s “Silent Night” (30 million sales);
• Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (16 million sales);
• Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (12.5 million sales); and,
• Band Aid’s (whoever/whatever that is)  “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (11.7 million sales).

Between you and me, I am offended (offended! I say) that Mariah would have the gall to “want me” and not get hauled into court. Oh well. 

Merry Christmas.