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Stories behind the best-loved songs of Chrismas

by Collins, Ace,

Format: Print Book 2020
Availability: Available at 1 Library 1 of 1 copy

Available (1)
Location Collection Call #
Oakmont Carnegie Library Non-Fiction 394.26 COL
Location  Oakmont Carnegie Library
 
Collection  Non-Fiction
 
Call Number  394.26 COL
 
 

Summary


Incredible stories and the inspiration behind the most popular Christmas songs, including Jingle Bells, Mary, Did You Know, The First Noel, O Holy Night, Silver Bells, and White Christmas.

Ringing along with the chimes in Silver Bells. Laughing along with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Holding a candle while singing a chorus of Silent Night. The songs that you've sung since you were a child continue to bring Christmas to life each year. Now, you'll learn how your favorite Christmas songs came to be. Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas reveals the surprising and fascinating origins of secular and religious Christmas hits. Here are spiritual insights, heartwarming stories, and tales of the humble men and women of decades past who wrote what remain the most beloved Christmas songs today. Discover how:

Iconic artists such as Judy Garland and Nat King Cole were influenced and inspired to record instant classics like Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and The Christmas Song. God-inspired words given to an unlikely musician became Mary, Did You Know One of the oldest Christmas songs still sung today, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, changed from a hymn sung in Latin only in Catholic masses to a carol embraced by every Christian denomination in the world.

The songs of Christmas reveal the true joy to be found in the celebration of Christ's birth and the spirit of the season that is anticipated each year all over the world. These stories will warm your heart and bring extra significance to the carols you sing each December.

Contents
Angels, from the realms of glory
Angels we have heard on high
Away in a manger
The Christmas song
Do you hear what I hear?
The first noel
Go tell it on the mountain
God rest ye merry gentlemen
Good Christian men, rejoice
Good King Wenceslas
Hark! the herald angels sing
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
I heard the bells on Christmas day
I wonder as I wander
I'll be home for Christmas
It came upon the midnight clear
Jingle bells
Joy to the world!
Mary did you know?
O come, all ye faithful
O come, o come, Emmanuel
O holy night
O little town of Bethlehem
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
Silent night
Silver bells
There's a song in the air
The twelve days of Christmas
We three kings of orient are
What child is this?
White Christmas.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Collins is an ace at song history, dispensing compendiums of song backstories that are nothing if not tasty--quite a feat, given the saccharinity of popular-music commentators in general. His custom is to tell how a song came to be written and popularized, capping the resultant article with a snippet about its commercial track record, if appropriate; quite often in this book, it isn't. Many a Christmas song peaked in popularity long before Bing Crosby or Judy Garland could have had a first-time chart-topper with them. Of course, Bing did make "Silver Bells" a hit, Judy scored with "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and Collins is fully in his element with those and other twentieth-century entrants into the Christmas canon. Not that he doesn't tell a good tale about each of the 31 entries in this book. It's just that, with the old songs, he can't impart facts such as the one he drops about "Silver Bells" --to wit, as Der Bingle moaned about many other things, Hope did it first. --Ray Olson"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "This year, at least three different titles explore the origins of well-known Christmas carols. Ace Collins's Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas takes on more than 30 popular songs and hymns, from classics such as "O Holy Night" and "Angels We Have Heard on High" to the contemporary Christian hit "Mary, Did You Know?" Secular numbers such as "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" also get their due in this attractively designed gift book. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Carols, English -- History and criticism.
Popular music -- History and criticism.
Christmas music -- History and criticism.
Christmas music.
Carols.
Publisher Grand Rapids, Michigan :Zondervan,2020
Language English
Description xi, 212 pages ; 19 cm
ISBN 9780310115908
0310115906
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