Annie Zaleski

They almost were not Chipmunks, which is funny.

Oh, boy.

I mean, and so this came out in 1943, which, you know, obviously was in the middle of World War II.

It was an even more fraught time, I think, than when White Christmas came out.

And, you know, basically, it's less optimistic.

I mean, I think, you know, even, you know, I'll be home for Christmas.

When you hear the title, you're like, that's a promise.

I'll be home there.

But honestly, when you actually kind of listen to the song, the lyrics almost hint that coming home for the holidays is a fantasy, that this is something that might not be possible

You know, I think the parenthetical is if only in my dreams is, I think, you know, kind of, you know, basically points to that, basically that, you know, that there's no guarantee.

And I think this is another song that just really, really summed up the time and fun.

enough, the song actually has a very complicated backstory because there were lawsuits involved in terms of these songwriters.

People had shared this song and there were copyright things.

And so for a song that is just so melancholy and just, you know, so downtrodden, there was a lot of drama and legal drama behind the scenes.

But boy, Bing just really to his performance and his delivery on the song too, you know, he really, really lived the song and leaned into the melancholy.

But it was very, it was comforting in a way.

You know, for people who weren't feeling great at the holidays, who were feeling like, were feeling hopeless, that things weren't going to work out, you know, he was really the soundtrack to that and really told people it's okay to feel that way.

Absolutely.

And, you know, Jingle Bell Rock is another one of those when I mentioned, you know, songwriting credits.

That is a fascinating, fascinating one because the songwriters who are credited are Joseph Carlton Beale and James Ross Booth.