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White Christmas Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

White Christmas

Artist: Bing Crosby

Music and Lyrics by: Irving Berlin

White Christmas Irving Berlin (Excerpt)
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow …

Holiday Inn

Starring Marjorie Reynolds and Fred Astaire

Marjorie Reynolds, Fred Astaire – Holiday Inn (1942) 8×10 Quality Photo Print

White Christmas Irving Berlin

Written for the Film: Holiday Inn (1942)

Bing Crosby: Jim Hardy

Fred Astaire: Ted Hanover

Marjorie Reynolds: Linda Mason

Virginia Dale: Lila Dixon

Walter Abel: Danny Reed

Louise Beavers: Mamie

Irving Bacon: Gus

Holiday Inn

Starring Fred Astaire as Ted Hanover

Fred Astaire Dancing Solo – Holiday Inn (1942) 8×10 Quality Photo Print

Vera-Ellen
Fred Astaire will never say, though he’s always asked, which of his dancing ladies was his favorite partner. If you ask me, he preferred the solo turns.

Holiday Inn (1942)

Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds (dubbed by Martha Mears)

Holiday Inn

80th Anniversary Edition DVD

Special edition includes the film’s theatrical trailer and audio commentary with film historian Ken Barnes. Listen to archived audio comments from stars Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. You’ll love the holiday songs by famed composer Irving Berlin, including White Christmas–one of the biggest-selling recordings in music history!

Holiday Inn 80th Anniversary Edition DVD

Fred Astaire
I have no desire to prove anything by dancing. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance. I just put my feet in the air and move them around.

Holiday Inn (1942)

Starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby

Holiday Inn Movie Poster (1942)

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas

The Most-Recorded Christmas Song of All Time

Irving Berlin was known to stay up all night writing music and lyrics. White Christmas was a song he created during one such session. In the morning he reportedly told his musical secretary, “I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written–hell, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!”

White Christmas will forever be associated with Bing Crosby, who debuted the holiday tune on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941. The following year, the song was introduced on a large scale in the musical Holiday Inn. In the film, Bing Crosby sang a duet with Marjorie Reynolds. The song received an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Another Bing Crosby musical, White Christmas, starring Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen, was the highest-grossing film of 1954.

White Christmas has been covered by hundreds of artists, including Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Doris Day, The Partridge Family, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Taylor Swift, Boy George, and Rod Stewart. According to the 2008 Guinness Book of Records, Bing Crosby’s recording of the popular Christmas song is the biggest selling single of all time!

White Christmas (1954)

Starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye

White Christmas Movie Poster (1954)

Rosemary Clooney
The best way to get along with Bing was to forget first of all that he was Bing Crosby. It was not always easy.

White Christmas

Featured in the Film: White Christmas (1954)

Bing Crosby: Bob Wallace

Danny Kaye: Phil Davis

Rosemary Clooney: Betty Haynes

Vera-Ellen: Judy Haynes

Dean Jagger: Major Gen. Thomas F. Waverly

Mary Wickes: Emma Allen

Songs from Irving Berlin’s White Christmas

Featuring Rosemary Clooney

Rosemary Clooney – Songs from Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (Expanded Edition)

White Christmas Theatrical Movie Trailer

Starring Dean Jagger as Major Gen. Thomas F. Waverly

White Christmas

Diamond Anniversary Edition

This special edition was created to honor the 60th anniversaries of White Christmas and Danny Kaye’s appointment as UNICEF’s first Goodwill Ambassador.

White Christmas Diamond Anniversary Edition

Danny Kaye
I feel that the most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life is to be associated with UNICEF.

White Christmas

Starring Vera-Ellen as Judy Haynes

Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen, Bing Crosby – White Christmas (1954) 8×10 Quality Photo Print

Vera-Ellen
I was called a bookish child. Mother sent me to a ballet teacher in Cincinnati when I was nine years old. I guess I was an awkward child and the family wanted me to be graceful. When I found out I liked to dance and people seemed to like to watch me, I was determined to go places.

Irving Berlin

One of the Greatest Songwriters in American History

Irving Berlin Photograph

Irving Berlin
Never hate a song that’s sold a half million copies.

Bing Crosby Christmas Music

Including Irving Berlin’s White Christmas

Bing Crosby Sings Christmas Songs Bing Crosby’s Christmas Special

Bing Crosby
Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it ‘white.’

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Christmas With The Rat Pack: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. – Audio CD Christmas Songs: Interactive Children’s Sound Book – 10 Button Sound – 10 Sing-Along Tunes A First Book of Christmas Songs: For The Beginning Pianist with Downloadable MP3s Winter Wonderland – Various Artists – Heavyweight Black Vinyl – 4 Sides – Must-Have Collection!

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Guitarist Eddie Lang – Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame

Guitarist Eddie Lang

(1902-1933)

Guitarist Eddie Lang introduced the popular string instrument to a wider audience and forever changed the way that people listened to music. His versatility and musical talent made it possible for the humble guitar to rise to an elevated status in the jazz, blues, and classical genres. His career included collaborations with with such renowned artists as Louis Armstrong, Hoagy Carmichael, Bix Biederbecke, Benny Goodman, King Oliver, Bessie Smith, and Paul Whiteman.

He also played under the name “Blind Willie Dunn” on a number of blues records with Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson, an African-American blues and jazz singer, guitarist, violinist, and songwriter. Eddie Lang showed no tolerance for racism and appeared on more recording sessions with black musicians than any other white musician of his time.

The jazz guitar virtuoso became friends with legendary singer Bing Crosby and often served as his accompanist. Eddie Lang’s most famous association was with childhood friend and violinist Joe Venuti, with whom he recorded many titles.

Eddie Lang’s career was cut short in 1933 when complications arose after what was supposed to be a routine tonsillectomy. He was only 30 when he died.