Jingle Bells – A Jolly Traditional Christmas Song Released In 1857

One of the most well-known and frequently performed American carols worldwide is “Jingle Bells.” It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and released in the fall of 1857 under the title “The One Horse Open Sleigh.” According to some, the song was first intended to be performed by a Sunday school choir during Thanksgiving or as a drinking song.

Despite having no original connection to Christmas, it came to be associated with winter and Christmas music in the 1860s and 1870s and was included in several parlor songs and college anthologies in the 1880s. A recording from 1898 from Edison Records, which was also the first Christmas record, predates the 1889 Edison cylinder on which it was first captured.

The History Of A Famous Song.

Story Around The Composition.

The location and timing of Pierpont’s original composition of the song that would become “Jingle Bells” are unknown. In Medford, Massachusetts, a plaque at 19 High Street celebrates the “birthplace” of “Jingle Bells” and states that Pierpont composed the song there in 1850 at the Simpson Tavern. According to earlier local history accounts, the song was motivated by the town’s renowned sleigh races in the 19th century.

On September 16, 1857, “Jingle Bells” was given copyright protection under the name “The One Horse Open Sleigh.” To John P. Ordway, the song was dedicated. “Song and Chorus written and composed by J. Pierpont,” stated the songwriting credit.

Oliver Ditson and Company, 277 Washington Street, Boston, republished the song in 1859 under the new title “Jingle Bells; or “The One Horse Open Sleigh.” The title was surrounded by an illustration of sleigh bells on the sheet music cover. The horse was equipped with sleigh bells to provide the jingle-jangle sound.

The song was first performed by blackface minstrel Johnny Pell on September 15, 1857, at Boston’s Ordway Hall.

The song belonged to the then-popular “sleighing songs” style or genre. The researcher Kyna Hamill argued that Pierpont only wrote and released the song as a financial venture because the lyrics are oddly similar to lines from many other sleigh-riding songs that were popular at the time. She said: “Everything about the song is churned out and copied from other people and lines from other songs—there’s nothing original about it.

By the time the song was made public and copyrighted, Pierpont had moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he was now the church’s organist and music director. His brother, the Rev. John Pierpont Jr., was the minister there. Pierpont wed Eliza Jane Purse, a Savannah mayor’s daughter, in August 1857. Pierpont never left Savannah and stayed there the entire time.

A sleigh ride allowed an unaccompanied couple a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be together, unsupervised, in far-off woods or fields, with all the opportunities that afforded. The climax of a sleigh-ride expedition within the sleigh narrative was this “upset,” which Pierpont transferred to “upsot.”

Performances And Recordings.

“Jingle Bells,” a song by James Lord Pierpont that was published in 1857, has been performed and recognized all over the world, not just in the United States. James Lord Pierpont was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in honor of this accomplishment.

Will Lyle first recorded “Jingle Bells” on an Edison cylinder on October 30, 1889, but no copies are believed to have survived. The Edison Male Quartette recorded the earliest known recording in 1898 as part of the holiday medley “Sleigh Ride Party” on an Edison cylinder. The Hayden Quartet recorded “Jingle Bells” in 1902. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the song became a seasonal favorite.

The Decca 23281 recording of “Jingle Bells” by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters from 1943 peaked at No. 19 on the charts and sold more than a million copies. “Jingle Bells” by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, featuring Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, Ernie Caceres, and the Modernaires on vocals, peaked at No. 5 on the charts in 1941. Benny Goodman and His Orchestra’s rendition of “Jingle Bells” peaked at No. 18 on the charts in 1935.

In 1951, Les Paul’s multi-tracked guitar rendition of the song peaked at No. 10. With a multi-tracked version, Celtic Woman’s Musical Group peaked at No. 11 in 1996. In 2001, Wayne Allwine, Russi Taylor, and Bill Farmer performed the House of Mouse version. A recording of the song by Kimberley Locke reached No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 2006.

First Song Ever Broadcasted In Space.

One of the first songs to be broadcast from space was “Jingle Bells,” which was performed by Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra as part of a holiday-themed joke. On December 16, 1965, they transmitted the following report from space to Mission Control:

C6: Gemini VII, this is Gemini VI. We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, up in a polar orbit. He’s in a very low trajectory traveling from north to south and has a very high climbing ratio. It looks like it might even be a … Very low. Looks like he might be going to reenter soon. Stand by one … You might just let me try to pick up that thing. (Music – Jingle Bells – from Spacecraft VI) P7: We got the too, VI. C6: That was live, VII, not tape. CC: You’re too much, VI.

The astronauts then produced a smuggled harmonica and sleigh bells, and Stafford and Schirra performed a rendition of “Jingle Bells” on the bells while Schirra played the harmonica. The tiny Hohner “Little Lady” harmonica, which was displayed to the media once they got back, was one inch (2.5 cm) length and 3/8 of an inch (1 cm) wide.

About The Lyrics.

“The word jingle in the title and opening phrase is apparently an imperative verb,” writes music historian James Fuld. A horse-drawn sleigh in the snow makes almost no noise, thus in the winter in New England in the days before automobiles, it was traditional to adorn horses’ harnesses with straps containing bells in order to prevent collisions at blind crossings.

The song’s beat is similar to the bells of a trotting horse. However, the term “jingle bells” is frequently used to refer to a specific type of bell.

Jingle Bells

Dashing through the snow

In a one-horse open sleigh

O’er the fields we go

Laughing all the way

Bells on bob tail ring

Making spirits bright

What fun it is to ride and sing

A sleighing song tonight! Oh!

Jingle bells, jingle bells,

Jingle all the way.

Oh! what fun it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh. Hey!

Jingle bells, jingle bells,

Jingle all the way;

Oh! what fun it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh.

The remaining verses, though less well-known than the opener, show fast-paced youthful pleasure. The narrator rides with a girl in the second verse and loses control of the sleigh:

A day or two ago

I thought I’d take a ride

And soon, Miss Fanny Bright

Was seated by my side,

The horse was lean and lank

Misfortune seemed his lot

He got into a drifted bank

And then we got upsot.

| : chorus : |

He falls out of the sleigh in the following lyric, which is frequently skipped:

A day or two ago,

The story I must tell

I went out on the snow,

And on my back I fell;

A gent was riding by

In a one-horse open sleigh,

He laughed as there I sprawling lie,

But quickly drove away. Ah!

| : chorus : |

After sharing his story, he advises a companion to pick up some girls, acquire a faster horse, and go off at top speed in the last verse:

Now the ground is white

Go it while you’re young,

Take the girls tonight

and sing this sleighing song;

Just get a bobtailed bay

Two forty as his speed

Hitch him to an open sleigh

And crack! you’ll take the lead.

| : chorus : |

The Original Lyrics.

The chorus and two initial stanzas of the original 1857 lyrics were a little different from what is now known as the song. Who changed the words to the more recent version is unknown. The lyrics from the original version that have been deleted are highlighted. The updated lyrics in the current version are those in bold.

Dashing thro’ the snow,

In a one-horse open sleigh,

O’er the hills (fields) we go,

Laughing all the way;

Bells on bob tail ring,

Making spirits bright,

Oh what sport (What fun it is) to ride and sing

A sleighing song tonight.

| : chorus : |

Jingle bells, jingle bells,

Jingle all the way;

Oh! what joy (fun) it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh.

A day or two ago

I tho’t I’d take a ride

And soon Miss Fannie Bright

Was seated by my side.

The horse was lean and lank

Misfortune seemed his lot

He got into a drifted bank

And we— (then) we got upsot.

Article Shared About Christmas With “Abrupt Incidents Related To Mickey Mouse And Friends At Christmas In 1999.”