Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas (14 page)

J
ay Livington and Ray Evans rank as one of the most successful songwriting teams in history. With Livington composing the music and Evans writing the lyrics, the men scored time and time again with award-winning hits such as “To Each His Own” and “Another Time Another Place.” By the early ‘50s, having already taken Academy Awards for “Buttons and Bows” and “Mona Lisa,” they were two of the most sought after songwriters in the country; every movie studio, radio show, and recording artist wanted their latest offering. Though they scored with hundreds of songs and sales of their tunes climbed into the hundreds of millions, the two are now best remembered for a strange song about a horse and a beautiful ballad about Christmas. Both songs are so popular that most Americans of all ages can sing the words to them.

In 1951 Bob Hope was one of the world’s brightest stars. His name not only guaranteed big box office response at
movie theaters, he already was a longtime radio star and had made a successful move to television. Beloved for his selfless work with U.S.O. tours in World War II and then Korea, Hope was “Mr. Christmas” to many members of the U.S. Armed Forces, even though he had never scored a hit with a Christmas song. From 1942 on, Bob spent every holiday season with men and women in uniform.

Paramount Pictures scheduled Hope to film a remake of the movie
The Lemon Drop Kid
, a perfect vehicle for his trademark humor. In the film, Hope would play a small-time gambler who owed a large sum of money to the mob. Unable to pay it off, the Kid would work a scam. In the midst of trying to outcon the cons, Bob’s character would fall in love, reform, and escape a large number of near-fatal attacks. Of course, Hope would also find time to sing a song or two. With a cast of great characters surrounding the star, the cast and film crew began work in early 1951.

Livington and Evans, who had put together the wonderful score for Hope’s box office smash
Paleface
, were called in to write the score for
The Lemon Drop Kid.
As they reviewed the script, they noted that it was a holiday movie with a new twist.
Holiday Inn, Christmas in Connecticut
, and a long list of other films had always been set in the country; now, for the first time in Hollywood history, songwriters were being asked to come up with a Christmas number that didn’t embrace the pleasures of rural life during the holidays. It was a perspective American movies and songs had yet to explore.

After determining where music was needed, the songwriters had a brainstorming session in Evans’s office. As they discussed the script, one of the men picked up a small silver bell and played with it. The tiny noisemaker magically transported the writers to the sidewalks of New York. As they began to
think about the way streets and display windows were decorated, the attitudes of happy store managers and anxious shoppers, and the looks on expectant children’s faces, the song they needed for Bob Hope and costar Marilyn Maxwell’s duet quickly came together.

The team had been writing hits long enough to know when they had one, so Livington and Evans couldn’t wait to take their latest work to the studio. But before the duo could share their latest composition with Bob Hope, they decided to sing it to Ray’s wife. The men were chagrined and confused when the woman giggled as they sang. As she doubled over in laughter, the team wondered what had gone wrong.

When Mrs. Evans composed herself, she informed the duo that the chorus was all wrong. It wouldn’t work, she assured them. She pointed out that when others heard it, they would laugh as hard as she had.

The song’s problem could be traced to the small bell that served as its inspiration. Livington and Evans had named their song after that tiny instrument, and the song began, “Tinker bell, tinker bell, it’s Christmastime in the city.” As the writers once again listened to the words, they grinned along with Mrs. Evans. They quickly crossed out the word
tinker
and substituted the word
silver.

When released,
The Lemon Drop Kid
was a moderately successful movie. Yet the film would have probably been quickly forgotten if not for the song “Silver Bells.” Film patrons fell in love with it. This new genre of Christmas song fit well in the new America. After World War II, Americans had moved to urban areas in droves. This migration meant that more and more people were experiencing the bustle of holidays in cities than ever before. Livington and Evans’s unadorned descriptions of everything from stoplights blinking red and green (the yellow
caution light had not yet been added) to thousands of shoppers rushing from store to store struck a chord with millions who were exposed to those things every day. The bells that anchored the chorus were everywhere too. They rang in cathedral towers, jingled along horse-drawn carriages, and were constantly chiming in the hands of men and women seeking donations to help feed the poor and needy. In the city, bells, much more than anything else, signaled the coming of the holiday season. “Silver Bells” fully captured this experience in song.

Bob Hope may have introduced “Silver Bells” to the world, but it was his friend Bing Crosby who cashed in on the song’s market potential. Bing recorded the hit version of the Livington-Evans collaboration, and soon everyone else seemed to be recording the hit too. When President John F. Kennedy declared it his favorite Christmas song, “Silver Bells” rang out loudly in the White House. By the year 2000, hundreds of different versions of the song had rung up more than 150 million record sales, proving that JFK wasn’t the only one who embraced this sentimental holiday offering as a favorite.

After completing
The Lemon Drop Kid
, Bob Hope continued to sing “Silver Bells” to U.S. troops at Christmas for more than four decades. His work in Vietnam and other combat arenas helped make him the most honored private citizen in United States history. Hope’s holiday entertainment junkets to the far parts of the globe also earned him the label of “the G.I.’s Santa Claus.”

Though they could have retired and lived on the royalties from their Christmas hit, Jay Livington
and Ray Evans continued to write. In 1956 they won their third Oscar for “Que Sera Sera” and scored again with the title song from
Tammy.
Yet it was the theme song for a very unique television series that ranks right up there along with “Silver Bells” as their most remembered work. The same writing duo that composed the incomparable “Mona Lisa” and incredible “Silver Bells” also gave the world the whimsical and silly theme from “Mr. Ed.”

I
n the summer of 1904, Karl P. Harrington was working on the most important assignment he had ever been given. The teacher, composer, and church music director was helping to assemble a new Methodist hymnal. As he reviewed hundreds of familiar songs previously published in other songbooks, Harrington carefully considered the task at hand. In between the covers of the hymnal had to be songs that would address every worship need of countless different congregations. That meant he had to include music that could be sung by huge church choirs in places like Boston and by tiny congregations in places like Salem, Arkansas. Every pastor and song leader would be depending upon the songs included; other than the Bible itself, his project would be the most important tool found in most churches. The missionary task of leading the lost to Christ—and inspiring the saved to work for the Lord—would be helped or hindered by the songbook. Even for a man of Harrington’s education and experience, the job he faced was overwhelming.

The middle-aged Harrington had been chosen for the project because he had studied at a dozen different colleges in the United States and Europe. A talented organist, he knew worship music well and had penned several original songs while also developing new arrangements for dozens of recognized works. As a Wesley University music professor, he had the time to properly study thousands of songs and consider their merits. Yet even though his hours spent with students gave Harrington a new perspective and energy, his months employed studying hymns and making cuts in the hymnal seemed to zap his vigor and strength.
Why have I accepted this job?
he must have wondered.
What chance do I have of satisfying the needs of everyone who picks up the songbook? Can I find one song that will touch all those who use this hymnal?

Harrington loved to read; it was one of the ways he relaxed. In an attempt to get away from the demands of his work, the teacher often turned to one of his favorite authors, Josiah Holland. As he toiled over the hymnal, his reading of Holland’s works became more and more of a refuge.

Josiah Holland was born in 1819 in Massachusetts. After trying to master the new art of photography, Holland went to college and became a doctor. Soon, however, his love for literature exceeded his passion for medicine. By the time he reached the age of forty, he had given up his practice and was on the staff of the
Springfield Republican.
A few years later he founded
Scribner’s
magazine. While editing the prestigious monthly, Holland began to write novels. His works of fiction reflected his own moral upbringing. In each of his heroes readers found strong figures who might have been tempted, but never strayed far from the straight and narrow.

In the midst of turning out several best-selling books, Holland also wrote poetry. A deeply religious man, the editor used the story of the first Christmas to create a poem for an 1874 Sunday school journal. “There’s a Song in the Air” combined a sweetness and majesty rarely found in holiday verse. The way the writer mixed the image of a young mother, her new baby, the events of the birth, and the revelation that this child was the King of all creation was indeed inspired. Yet this unique view of Christ’s birth might have been lost if the author hadn’t decided to reprint it in an 1874 book entitled
Complete Poetical Writings.
Three decades later, more than twenty-five years after Holland had died, it was
Complete Poetical Writings
that Karl Harrington chose to help him escape from the rigors of finding songs for a hymnal.

It was a hot summer day when Harrington wiped the sweat from his brow as he turned the pages of Holland’s book. Taking a sip of a cool drink, the teacher read the next poem. As he silently studied the words, his eyes lit up. Holland’s works were usually casual and distant, but this one was aflame with vigor and energy. When he finished “There’s a Song in the Air,” Harrington took a deep breath and read the poem again.
This needs to be put to music
, he thought.
This piece needs to be sung by Christian voices everywhere!

Going over to the organ, Harrington again studied the words to “There’s a Song in the Air.” This time he read them aloud, forming a tune around each phrase. As his fingers touched the keyboard, a melody came to life. On an oppressively hot summer day—much like Torme’s “The Christmas Song,” written almost forty years after it—a great Christmas song was born.

In 1905, Karl Harrington’s music was officially married to Josiah Holland’s poem in the first printing of
The Methodist Hymnal.
An answer to a professor’s prayer, “There’s a Song in the Air” became the perfect song for large and small churches, as well as one of the most beautifully crafted carols ever written.