Post New Year’s Day is a good time to
share one of those holiday playlist songs that really have nothing to do with Christmas
or any other seasonal fest. Among the most common of these are the winter or snow songs—think Frosty the Snowman for kids, the seduction or date rape song (take your pick) Baby its Cold Outside, Snow from
the movie White Christmas, My Favorite Things from the Sound
of Music, and of course Jingle Bells. But the most popular of the more
modern of those songs is Winter Wonderland.
Winter Wonderland was written by composer Felix Bernard and the consumptive lyricist Richard B. Smith.
The
song was written in 1934 by Felix
Bernard and lyricist Richard B.
Smith. Since its original RCA recording by Richard Himber and his Hotel
Ritz-Carlton Orchestra, it has been covered by over 200 different artists,
including Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Frank
Sinatra, Amy Grant, Michael Bublé, The Eurythmics, and
Radiohead.
Smith’s
lyrics were reportedly inspired by memories
of his hometown Honesdale, Pennsylvania Central Park where children played in snow but were written while he was
being treated for tuberculosis in
the West Mountain Sanitarium in Scranton.
Among
the most notable covers were by Johnny Mercer,
which reached #4 on the Billboard radio play chart in 1946
and by Perry Como the same year
which was in the top ten songs in retail sales.
Some
other later covers of the song used Sinatra’s version while others stood by the
original words. Some even used both
versions.
Today we will share a version by former big band singer turned movie star Doris Day. The video clips accompanying her singing are from two popular MGM movie nostalgia fests she made opposite Gordon McCrea, On Moonlight Bay in 1951 and By The Light Of The Silvery Moon in 1953.
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