16

#16 is one of the best known and most commonly sung American songs in the world, Jingle Bells. It was composed by James Pierpout as a drinking song, titled “The One Horse Open Sleigh”. High speed sleigh races were popular in the 1850s when this song was copyrighted in 1857 • The first performance was the same year in Boston by minstrel performer Johnny Pell • In the 1860s-70s the song became associated with winter and Christmas, and was first recorded by a banjo player, Will Lyle, in 1889 on an edison wax cylinder (an early phonograph) which was eventually lost. Then in 1902 The Hayden Quartet recorded it as Jingle Bells • Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters recorded it in 1943 selling over a million records • Two states still claim the song as their own. Pierpout was born in Boston, and Simpson’s Tavern in nearby Medford believes he wrote it there in 1850. The other is Georgia, insisting he wrote Jingle Bells in 1857 while he was Music Director at the Unitarian Church in Savannah • Pierpout eventually fought in the Civil War as a Confederate soldier • The song’s lyrics included the word “upsot” which means overturn. Who knew this popular song was about an overturned sleigh, a common occurrence during sleigh races? • While MrsP was in the Post Office I took a shot of our decorated Main Street. All we need is snow • Good Luck to England today!