On the second day of Christmas, the Singing Sergeants gave to thee… an upbeat arrangement of “Jingle Bells” -recorded from Historic Hangar II, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling,
From AmericanMusicPreservation.com:
One of the most popular songs heard during the Christmas season began not for that holiday but as a winter song with the title, “The One Horse Open Sleigh”
According to the book, Boston Curiosities (page 173), this information is provided:
“Jingle Bells” was written by Medford [Massachusetts] resident James Pierpont in 1850, inspired by the annual one-horse open-sleigh races on Salem and Pleasant Streets between Medford Square and Malden Square. Pierpont penned the racy little ditty in Simpson’s Tavern, a boardinghouse that had only one piano in town.
These are interesting details about how the song was written but unfortunately the two authors (Bruce Gellerman and Erik Sherman) do not provide any source for this information. Two years later, in 1859, the title was changed when it was reprinted with the title:
“Jingle Bells, or The One Horse Open Sleigh”
James Lord Pierpont was born in Medford, Massachusetts in 1822 and died in Winter Haven, Florida in 1893. He had a rather unusual life, coming from a strict New England Unitarian family who were against slavery. He moved to the South and was an organist in a church in Savannah, Georgia. Against his family’s wishes, he supported the Confederate cause, writing several songs in support, including “Strike for the South” and “We Conquer or Die.”It has been reported, though not proven, that he wrote his popular winter song for his father’s Sunday School class for Thanksgiving and it proved so popular that it was sung again at Christmas time. One of Pierpont’s friends called the song — “a merry little jingle.”
Lead photo: Conny Sjostrom / Shutterstock.com“>www.shuterstock.com
