MUSICAL MUSINGS, 29 December 2023: A Noisy, Nostalgic Tune for A Not-So-Snowy New England Winter: “JINGLE BELLS!”

Not needing to navigate through a lot of snow so far in this quasi-winter of few flakes and fewer sleigh rides, I find myself still motivated to end this rather complicated year with just one more of my seasonal musical musings.  So, gentle readers, bear with me as I retreat from my favored songs of relative obscurity to one of the best-known and most commonly sung American songs in the world—“Jingle Bells.” 

Our song was written by one James Lord Pierpont—an impecunious son of a fiery abolitionist preacher from Medford, Massachusetts. Written a couple of years earlier, it was officially published in 1857 with the title “One Horse Open Sleigh.” This was after Pierpont had moved from relatively snowy Massachusetts to seek his fortune in relatively snowless Georgia.  

Alas, Pierpont has been tarred by some historians as a drifter and ne’er-do-well husband, gold rush con man, anti-abolitionist, Confederate soldier, and otherwise nasty guy. But, he does have Massachusetts connections and he did write our song. After a hundred years or so, that’s probably all that really matters!

Musical historians have noted that the song was probably cobbled together from a variety of sources and that it was originally intended to be sung by Pierpont’s father’s Sunday School choir for Thanksgiving.  Or, as a more likely story, it was written as a slightly ribald drinking song and sung by drunkards who would clink their glasses like bells when the word was mentioned. It all depends on which historian or folklorist is telling the story.  So what else is new in history? But, Medford has the plaque! 

Like many traditional Christmas songs, “Jingle Bells” has a strange and fascinating history. Even the first arrangement, which was less upbeat, is  different than the one we hear today. Anyway, the song is said to have been inspired by popular 19^th century sleigh races in Medford where, in those days, long strands of small brass or iron bells were strapped to horses as a public safety measure. 

A horse pulling a sleigh was almost noiseless and the jingle-jangle sound of the bells gave fair warning to those who might be in the way—a quaint safety measure of the day. 

By the late 1800s, the song “Jingle Bells” had become an integral part of the Christmas musical genre. It was first recorded in 1889 on an Edison cylinder as part of a Christmas medley titled “Sleigh Ride Party,” considered to be Americas first “Christmas album!”  Needless to say, it was a trend setter of sorts, both dubious and not.

Now here’s where musical history takes a bit of a jog as well as a jingle.  In 1857, well after the Sunday School performance, the ever cash-strapped Pierpont, then living in Georgia, copyrighted “One Horse Open Sleigh” and sent it to print. Hence the counterclaim to the song’s origin by the folks in Savannah. Nya, nya, nya.  

So, for a retreat from modern times, click or tap on the triangle in the next image or link to listen to a modern (not a scratchy 19^th century cylinder) rendition of Pierpont’s original lyrics and melody of “The One-Horse Open Sleigh.” Don’t forget to tap a spoon on your glass at the appropriate moments!

However, well before copyrighting and publication, it was Pierpont’s intention to generate some much-needed cash royalties from stage performances, particularly in cities with more lively musical reputations than sleepy Medford. Accordingly, he showed the tune to a few performer pals and it was quickly taken up and first performed on the stage in nearby Boston by a popular white blackface-minstrel performer, one Johnny Pell. 

It soon became a popular, money-making standard for Pierpont on the minstrel circuit and he wrote and published several more polkas and songs that became standards on the minstrel circuit of the day–and relatively forgotten today. A Southern sympathizer, he also wrote several patriotic songs while serving as a Confederate soldier from Georgia–needless to say quite sleigh- and snow-less!

As a so-called story song, “Jingle Bells” tells of a dashing young man-about-town who took his sweetheart sleighing and, in what must have been a moment of inattention to horse and road (wink-wink!), upset them both into the snow—a somewhat disguised but rather suggestive narrative at the time.

The theme was thought humorous as it was well understood that an evening sleigh ride just might give an unescorted couple a rare opportunity to be together—unchaperoned (oh my!) in distant woods or fields and far from prying eyes.  Is our tune tainted because of its brush with blackface minstrelsy, or 19^th century lovers’ shenanigans?  I can’t think so—certainly not by today’s pop music standards!

Moving on . . . Over the past hundred and seventy-plus years, “Jingle Bells” has been performed by everyone from that original Sunday School group to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  It’s also been recorded by every big and not so big name in the music business from country to classical.  But, it’s just too good and sing-able a song not to live on, even if it jingle-jangles on a bit too often in too many shopping venues at this time of year.

Next, even though we ukulele strummers are known to say that “more than four strings is just showing off,” I am compelled to include one of my favorite multi-multi-string versions of “Jingle Bells.”  Click or tap on the triangle in the next image or link to hear the late Earl Scruggs and friends attack our song in bluegrass style!

And, where would we be without a ukulele version?  Click or tap on the next image or link to hear The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain have a rather bizarre go at this one!

So, keep your non-plastic ukuleles out of the snow (if and when)  .  .  . 

and STAY TUNED as we sleigh away from a less than perfect 2023 and dance into a more than perfect (please, no “upsots!”) 2024!