Angels We Have Heard - Introduction

Introduction

by songwriter Justin Wilde, co-author of “It Must Have Been The Mistletoe,” recorded by Barbra Streisand and Barbara Mandrell

Over the years, "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" (written in 1945 by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne) has become a holiday standard because it was recorded by many artists, including: (photos from top of page to bottom) Les Brown & His Orchestra, Johnny Desmond, Vaughn Monroe, and Frank Sinatra.

’Tis the season to be humming, singing, or just enjoying all those beautiful Christmas songs that add so immeasurably to our holiday traditions. This wonderful new book by James Richliano gives us the “behind the scenes” stories of how many of our perennial favorites came to be. James allows us to peek at the creative processes many of the songwriters went through, and the enormous efforts that were then required to launch your favorite holiday standards. From humorous anecdotes like which names Robert L. May first chose to call Rudolph, to the heartbreaking, yet inspirational story behind the Alfred Burt carols — it all makes for fascinating reading during “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

As the only publisher in the music industry who specializes strictly in holiday music, I’m often asked what makes a Christmas song become a standard? In my mind there’s quite a difference between a “hit” song and a “standard” song. Hit songs come and go, but standards remain with us throughout the decades and possibly forever.

So what makes a Christmas song a potential standard? The first criterion is a great melody. By great, however, I do not mean intricate or elaborate. Melodic simplicity is the key. Try humming your favorite Christmas songs, and you’ll notice how simple and easy they are to sing. I usually tell my writers that if I can’t sing back the majority of their melody after hearing it only three to four times, it’s not likely to become a standard. There are exceptions to this rule (“Sleigh Ride” comes to mind), but in general, the most memorable Christmas songs are the ones that can be sung by carolers, or the average man on the street. Add to that a joyous or emotionally moving lyric, and you’ve got the makings of a holiday “evergreen.” But then comes the hard part.

Launching a new holiday standard has become extremely difficult, if not almost impossible in this day and age, for several reasons. I truly believe that if “White Christmas” was being released as a new Christmas song for the first time this year, it would probably not become the standard it is today, and the reasons have nothing to do with the quality of the song itself. If this sounds like sacrilege, read on.

The 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s were the “Golden Age of Christmas Songs.” During those decades, the record industry was a “singles” market. Artists released one song at a time, so it was very easy for them to release a new Christmas song every other year if they wished. When they did release one, if it was successful, the record label would continue to re-release and promote it each year thereafter for as long as it continued to sell. Thus, many Christmas singles were vigorously promoted for several years in a row. This no longer happens.

In today’s market, everything is centered on the “album” concept. A few “superstar” artists will release two or three Christmas albums over the course of their careers, but most only do one or two at best. Artists no longer release yearly Christmas singles unless they are tied to the release of an entire Christmas album. And since most Christmas albums peak the first year they are released, there’s no point for the label to continue promoting a CD that’s no longer selling huge units like it did the first year it was recorded.

A second major factor is that for Christmas songs to become standards, they need to be recorded by several artists. Radio might play “White Christmas” every hour on the hour a few days before December 25th, but they won’t play Bing’s version every hour. They’ll rotate by playing versions by different artists. So to get lots of radio exposure requires that multiple versions by different artists be available to radio.

Most of the major “pop” Christmas standards were released before the era of the “singer/songwriter” when artists like Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Brenda Lee, Judy Garland and others recorded songs written by other songwriters. These artists didn’t care how many other versions of the song had been previously released. They put their own “vocal stamp” on their version. As a result, these songs from “The Golden Age” were often cut several hundred times over the course of those three decades.

Today, singer/songwriters usually only record songs they themselves have written. Call it vanity or greed, but if they do a Christmas album, although they will include some of the “old” standards, they rarely if ever record new Christmas songs that they, themselves, did not write. The result is that very few new holiday “standards” have surfaced since the 1970’s. Luckily, we’ve been left with a treasury of wonderful holiday standards from years past, but only one or two new ones from each decade since the 1960’s.

As you read through the coming stories of how these wonderful songs came to be, think back to that innocent, gentle, happy time when snowmen could dance and reindeer could fly — and you still believed in Santa.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Justin Wilde
“Mr. Christmas”
January 29, 2002
Buena Park, California