Christmas Carols - The Stories Behind the Songs

The traditional Christmas carols we know and love today have been around for many years, even centuries; each one has a fascinating story behind it. In this read-aloud collection, Tonya Lambert reveals stories and the trivia behind popular Christmas carols, traditional and contemporary--the music, the lyrics, the composers, the singers and the time and traditions around which they were written: - In one of the most successful television commercials to employ a Christmas song, Hershey's Kisses are portrayed as bells playing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" - In Austria, "Silent Night" is protected from commercialism and is not played, broadcast or sung until Christmas Eve - Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw thought the tune of "O Christmas Tree" sounded like "the funeral march of a dead eel" - The first Christmas carol broadcast in space was "Jingle Bells"; during the flight of Gemini 6 in 1965, astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra sang the carol accompanied by a harmonica and sleigh bells The earliest collection of Christmas carols is found in a manuscript compiled 600 years ago by a blind priest and poet in Shropshire, England - George Rock, who first recorded "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth," received thousands of teeth in the mail, two at a time, from children - It took Haven Gillespie just 15 minutes to write "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" on the back of an envelope while sitting in a bar in 1932 Christians in the mostly Muslim country of Malaysia have to obtain a police permit to sing Christmas carols in church or at home - Songwriter Irving Berlin tried unsuccessfully to get Elvis Presley's version of "White Christmas" banned from radio stations ...and so much more!

List of contents

"Contents: Introduction; Carol: The Word; The Start of Singing to the Reformation; Early Christian Nativity Chants; The Development of Carol Singing; The Song of the Sibyl; Early Anglo-Norman Secular Celebrations; The Coventry Carol; Good Christian Men, Rejoice; O Come, O Come, Emmanuel;The First Nowel; More Medieval Melodies; Lullabies for Jesus; Early French Christmas Carols; Wassailing: A Christmas Tradition; Luthers Carols; England: Caroling Before the Commonwealth;The Crime of Caroling; Keeping Christmas Alive; Victorian Carol Collections; Songs of The Early Years: The Boars Head Carol; The Twelve Days of Christmas; O Christmas Tree; Deck the Halls; The Holly and the Ivy; The Huron Carol; I Saw Three Ships; County Carols; Songs in the Hymnal: While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night; Joy to the World; Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; Adeste Fideles; Silent Night; Angelic Voices Singing; O Holy Night; Once in Royal Davids City; It Came Upon the Midnight Clear; Good King Wenceslas; We Three Kings; What Child Is This?; O Little Town of Bethlehem; More Spiritual Songs: Christmas Carols for the Cradle; Ring Those Bells!; Spirituals from the Old South; Carols by Christina; Alfred Burt and the Christmas Card Carols; The Little Drummer Boy; The Legend of the Christmas Rose; Kings and Shepherds; Some Secular Songs: Winter Wonderland; White Christmas; Ill Be Home for Christmas; The Christmas Song; Let It Snow!; Sleigh Ride; Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas; (Theres No Place Like) Home for the Holidays;Jingle Bell Rock; Rockin Around the Christmas Tree; Carols about Christmas Characters: Santa Claus;Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer; Frosty the Snowman; The Chipmunks; Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey; More Songs for Children All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth; Holiday Songs by Tepper and Bennett; I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas; I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus; Disney Sings Christmas.; Miscellaneous Music: The Holiday Blues; Its a Rhythm-and-Blues Christmas!;Caroling with a Latin Beat; Pretty Paper; Prayers for Peace; Christmas Music for the Movies;Carols about Christmas Cake; Sexually Suggestive Seasons Greetings; Parodying Christmas; More Miscellaneous Music; Performance Pieces: Bachs Christmas Oratorio; More Christmas Cantatas; The Messiah; The Nutcracker; Carol Symphony; A Ceremony of Carols; Amahl and the Night Visitors; The Trans-Siberian Orchestras Christmas Trilogy"

About the author

TONYA LAMBERT is a writer, editor, historian and actress and has been a bookseller, book reviewer, indexer, coach and teacher. She grew up in the small town of Kelvington, Saskatchewan, before moving to Edmonton with her three daughters. She earned a BA Honors Degree in History with High Honors and an MA in History from the University of Saskatchewan. Halloween has long been her favorite holiday.

Product details

• Authors: Tonya Lambert
• Publisher: Blue Bike Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.06.2023
• EAN: 9781926700397
• ISBN: 978-1-926700-39-7
• No. of pages: 240
• Dimensions: 131 mm x 208 mm x 20 mm
• Weight: 246 g
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Music > Music theory