On This Day in 1942, Bing Crosby Recorded the Irving Berlin Classic That Changed How the World Viewed Christmas Songs and Became the Best-Selling Single in History

On this day (May 29) in 1942, Bing Crosby entered the Radio Recorders studio in Los Angeles to record “White Christmas.” It was the first secular holiday song to find commercial success. This helped pave the way for countless non-religious Yuletide classics in the decades to come. Moreover, Crosby’s version alone has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling single in history.

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Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas” for the 1942 movie Holiday Inn. Crosby’s character, who sings it in the film, is from New York and finds himself in California during the holiday season.

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The onscreen version features an opening verse that sets the scene, ending with “But it’s December 24 / And I’m longing to be up north.” Jack Kapp, who produced the recording, convinced Crosby to omit the verse to give the song a broader appeal. That might have been one of the most pivotal decisions in entertainment history.

“White Christmas” spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 upon its initial release. Then, it returned to the top of the chart several more times until Billboard created a seasonal chart for holiday songs.

Bing Crosby Became the Voice of Hope and Nostalgia

“White Christmas” proved that secular holiday songs could be commercially successful. Moreover, it created a lasting connection between the Yuletide season and nostalgia.

The song was such a hit, in part, because it wasn’t too specific. It left room for listeners to picture their fond memories of past holiday seasons. As a result, the appeal of “White Christmas” was nearly universal. It served as a trigger for pleasant musings on better days at a time when the world sorely needed it.

Mark Steyn, author of A Song for the Season, wrote that the song “owes much of its enduring popularity to World War II, specifically, the attack on Pearl Harbor that led to US involvement.” The song was released just in time for the troops’ first Christmas away from their homes and families. Those who were fighting in the Pacific Theater were doing so in tropical conditions. The warm weather only made them long for home that much more.

According to Bing Crosby’s nephew, Howard Crosby, the crooner saw the impact the song had firsthand. “I once asked Uncle Bing about the most difficult thing he ever had to do during his entertainment career,” he told the Spokesman-Review. “He said in December 1944, he was in a USO show with Bob Hope and the Andrews Sisters. They did an outdoor show in northern France,” Crosby recalled. “He had to stand there and sing ‘White Christmas’ with 100,000 G.I.s in tears without breaking down himself.”

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