White Christmas was first sung in the 1942 film Holiday Inn. Bing Crosby performed it alongside Fred Astaire in the legendary Irving Berlin film and soundtrack. The track was an instant hit, becoming the best-known part of the film, and has since been purchased more than 50 million times worldwide. That same year it received an Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as a nomination for Best Score. The song did not stop there, however.
12 years later the White Christmas song was adapted into a full-length film of the same name – once again from Berlin. The 1954 movie welcomed Bing back to the screen alongside Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen. And it was a smash hit. Despite having a relatively large budget (at the time) of $2 million, it made more than $30 million at the box office.
The song and film became Bing’s calling card, but interviewer Barbara Walters thought he may have become completely fed up with it.
Irving’s three-week-old son died on Christmas Day in 1928. Jody Rosin, author of White Christmas: The Story of an American Song, explained: “The kind of deep secret of the song may be that it was Berlin responding in some way to his melancholy about the death of his son.”
Bing even tried to cut it from his sets when singing live.
When Bing visited American troops overseas to perform for them, he was invariably called to sing White Christmas, but he didn’t want to make them sad.
He later explained: “I hesitated about doing it because invariably it caused such a nostalgic yearning among the men, that it made them sad. Heaven knows, I didn’t come that far to make them sad. For this reason, several times I tried to cut it out of the show, but these guys just hollered for it.”
