Customer Reviews

Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas (Stories Behind Books)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

For someone with 50 books to his credit--as per the dust jacket--Collins is highly sloppy in the research of this book. As has been previously noted, he just presented a common story about the origins of "Silent Night" without necessarily having done any deep research. And the comments about "The Twelve Days of Christmas" come straight from a silly internet piece, with no basis in fact.

This is common throughout this book. It seems more often than not, Collins has just done some cursory internet research and then slapped it all together and called it good.

Some other screw-ups: Irving Berlin was worried that "White Christmas" wasn't really a good song. Actually Berlin, upon introducing it to his office staff and musical secretary, refered to it as "not only the greatest song I've ever written, but the greatest song ever written." Berlin at one point had plans to make White Christmas the main production number in a major Broadway revue. In performing it for Crosby and studio execs, Berlin got nervous with himself and choked in performing it. You can read about this in Jody Rosen's excellent book on White Christmas, called "White Christmas."

As for his assertions about the meaning and origin of the term Merry in merry Christmas, he gets it wrong again. Ten minutes in the Oxford English Dictionary, available at any decent public library, would have given him the answers.

Better Books on this subject are Rosen's afforementioned book and "The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols" ed. Ian Bradbury.

I heard about this book by listening to WMBI in Chicago the week before Christmas. They had the author on, telling one Christmas carol song per day. Immediately I purchased the book, and am thoroughly enjoying it!

Ace tells the stories of 31 favorite Christmas songs. They aren't all traditional carols, but include "Mary Did You Know", and a couple of secular-based Christmas songs such as "Silver Bells" and "Rudolph". I would love to know where Mr. Collins got all his information - there is no Bibliography.

The book itself is very attractive - you can see what the cover is like above, but inside, the print is a deep blue, and there are simple drawings and borders using the same blue. This makes it very visually appealing.

The best way to read "Stories Behind the Best-Love Songs of Christmas" would probably be to read one chapter per day for the 31 days before Christmas. But you can also read it straight through, or dip into the chapter that talks about YOUR favorite Christmas song.

As a perfect companion to Ace Collins' book, I recommend "Christ in the Carols" by Christopher and Melodie Lane. In this book, the emphasis is on finding Christ in the carols and how these carols express so beautifully the glorious and mysterious incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Take the time out this Christmas to enjoy the history and meaning of these beloved songs of Christmas! This book would make a wonderful gift!

You might be interested in checking out my other reviews of Christian books adn music.

I really enjoyed this book. It was so interesting to hear the stories behind all the Christmas songs. The only reason I rated it a four is that not all the song lyrics are included. Even when it is a song I know by heart, I liked reading through the words, especially songs that have several verses that we don't always sing. Very sweet, easy to read, and interesting.

Another reviewer points out the this author seems to weave fairy tales into his narrative. That's exactly the problem. There is often a core of fact in what he's describing - but he weaves about half a page of fact into a fanciful two and half pages which he crams with spiritual extrapolation. He adds a subtext to almost every story that is his own agenda...putting thoughts into the composers head and words into their mouth which are obviously fabricated. It's frustrating - because if he had gone with "Just the facts, Maam" it would have been one of the most useful books out there on the subject. Instead, when i'm researching a carol, I have to cross check it with several other sources to make sure he hasn't completely invented part of a story.

I agree with the reviewer who cited sloppy research. While I'm not knowledgeable enough to actually catch the author in inaccuracies, I can tell that the research was superficial and that he glossed over parts where he didn't have enough information. The premise is interesting, and I would have liked a good 'meaty' book about the history of each carol, instead of something that was only incidentally interested in the history of the song itself and more concerned with the time period and attempts to 'get inside' the head of whoever wrote the song (and/or lyrics). I would seriously suggest skipping this book - even as a freebie, which the Kindle version currently is - and spending some money to pick up one that shows better scholarship and editing (see note below).

Note on Kindle formatting: Poor. And strange. Each chapter deals with one Christmas carol, but the words to the carol are given in the middle of the chapter - and in the middle of an unconnected paragraph. Sometimes even in the middle of a sentence! You'll be reading along and get to the middle of a sentence talking about some aspect of the carol, then it suddenly breaks off and the words to the carol (in italics, and not always properly formatted themselves) intervene. After turning the page, you can pick up where you left off in the middle of that sentence. The illustrations (bad) do the same thing.

Based on content - 2.5 - 3 stars; based on formatting 1.5 stars.

I had high hopes for this selection. I love Christmas carols and thought that having the stories behind them would be fun. However, of the first three "chapters" that I read (I'll be Home for Christmas, White Christmas, and the Twelve Days of Christmas), the research is sloppy, incorrect, and incomplete. Other reviewers have detailed the problems with White Christmas. A simple search on the Urban Legend dubunking site of snopes.com will show problems with the Twelve Days of Christmas writeup. And then there's my favorite, I'll be Home for Christmas. While the story is nice, adding yet one more error (assuming that lyricist "Kim Gannon" is female) to the list already detailed causes one to question the validity of anything in the entire book. The lyrics for this song were written by James "Kim" Gannon (male). This book would have benefited from better research AND better proofreading. Luckily I picked it up for free for the Kindle. If it's still available for free, it's maybe worth the download for some of the stories, but before passing on any information to others, it's best to do a quick google search to validate that you are not just perpetuating a legend.

I was expecting accurate information regarding the history of Christmas songs and carols. Instead, Ace Collins has taken some facts about the carols and woven fairytales around them. In some cases he has taken a few facts and assumed results that are erroneous.

Having personally researched "Silent Night" in Austria, I can say for certain that Collins has presented another fanciful story based on some facts and some misconceptions about the world's best-loved carol.

The tale about "The Twelve Days of Christmas" being a secret catechism for Catholics in the period when they were oppressed in England doesn't make any sense. The "secret" Catholic beliefs it supposedly hides are identical to the Protestant beliefs of that era. Therefore there was no reason to keep them secret from Protestants -- 1 = one God, 2 = Old and New Testament, 3 = gold, frankincense, and myrrh -- and so on.

Sadly, it's just another feel-good Christmas book when it could have been a valuable resource for people wanting accurate information.

A small book by size, but large by content, this book features over twenty Christmas carols and their histories. A downside is that the scores for the carols is excluded. But the background information is thorough and aids in understanding each song. Written for a grade school child to read with little trouble.

The author should quote his sources, because others in the future may take his statements for fact, when some of the stories are not backed up by other authors / researchers. I have found conflicting information about some of the music both in print and online. A Google search will lead you to different versions and also different background info on "The Twelve Days of Christmas", for example. Also, though I am no musicologist, I would consider a christmas song as being secular, and a christmas carol as being about sacred topics, i.e. Jesus, Joseph, and Mary. In contrast, The "Reader's Digest Merry Christmas Songbook" is pretty good about (briefly) explaining the backgound / history of the selections (plus it has the music) and almost every one of the popular songs, but it does not always have all of the verses of the songs.

The book and information was wonderful. A very nice read. However - stick to the original size. This miniature edition is a little TOO miniature... only about 1 inch square.