Customer Reviews

White Christmas: The Story of an American Song

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It's time to take a good look at the most popular song ever, top selling and most frequently recorded. _White Christmas: The Story of an American Song_ (Scribner) by Jody Rosen not only tells about the song everyone has heard so many times that no one really listens to it anymore, but also about the songwriter, American twentieth century history, and Tin Pan Alley and its descendants. It's a lot of baggage to load upon a pop song, but it is an amazing little song, and the book has a brisk story told with real love of the music and how it was shaped and how it shaped us.

It's a good thing that Irving Berlin didn't write about a Christmas "just like the ones I used to know." He was born Israel Baline in 1888 in a bleak town in Siberia. Russian peasants, drunk with Christmas cheer, often used the holiday as an excuse for pogroms against the Jews, and his first memory is of his house being burned down. Berlin got no formal musical training, but produced hundreds of songs. In January 1940, Berlin worked over the weekend on a song he became very enthusiastic about. He bustled into his office that Monday morning and said, "I want you to take down a song I wrote over the weekend. Not only is it the best song _I_ ever wrote, it's the best song _anybody_ ever wrote." Christmas 1942 was the first that masses of Americans, soldiers and sailors all over the world, would spend away from home, and could only dream of Christmases just like the ones they used to know. Crosby's version was shipped to them in recordings, and it topped the Hit Parade as a patriotic anthem, displacing "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." The song signaled that recordings and performers were in and sheet music and songwriters were out. In 1957, Berlin tried to squelch an Elvis Presley version, but couldn't.

Rosen's clear, fully researched book is an essential biography of an American song classic, and will improve your understanding every time you inevitably hear the song again. It encompasses important ideas about the history of modern music, Jewish influence and assimilation, patriotism in song, and the evolution of celebrating Christmas. It is not strictly a Christmas book, for it is about much more than just the season. But it would be fine for those looking for serious and interesting reading for the holidays, or as a gift book for readers who think they have already heard all the song has to say.

I thought that this book was just outstanding. I would give it 6 stars if I could. I thought that the writing was excellent (I found myself frequently flipping back a few pages just to re-read certain passages over again), and that it was endlessly fascinating. The material on the relationship of Jews to Christmas is particularly interesting, as is the author's discussion of the myth of the "recent" commercialization of Christmas. He treats both Berlin and the song itself in a clear-headed yet loving way. I cannot recommend this little book highly enough and I congratulate (and thank) the author for a marvelously entertaining book.

This is one most lively, intelligent and orginal non-fiction books I've read in years. Not only does Rosen chronicle superbly Irving Berlin's amazing rags-to-riches story and the story of his most successful song but through both illuminates a larger story of how jewish immigrants - with great creative energy and drive for success and inclusion - transformed American culture. The role that WW II played in the song's massive success is also fascinating (and timely).

This is a pretty interesting book regarding the writing of and eventual huge success of an American popular song.
The author gives good background information about Irving Berlin, the song's composer, plus an interesting look at the history of popular music in general during the days of the great composers.
Also of interest is the various incarnations of the song, from classic era songsters to more contemporary artists and including the use of it in various motion pictures and other venues.

People are amazed at how much I know about this song when it is getting discussed. The only reason I know what i do is from this book.

Not only did I learn a lot about the song but Irving Berlin as well.

This book is very entertaining and fun to read, even in the summer.

I got this book because I like books that cover a single entity (one song, one movie, etc.). I ended up skimming it, though, after the introduction, which was a mess that rambled without any structure from paragraph to paragraph. By skimming the rest of the book, I was able to glean several really interesting tidbits I wanted to know about (such as the fact that "I'll Be Home for Christmas" was released a year after "White Christmas," clearly to cash in on the latter's success), but I didn't have to endure the style (or, for that matter, the typeface, which I don't see that often and which tripped me up visually a few times). Also, perhaps it's the author's youth, but there are small but nagging discrepancies here and there (for instance, he doesn't know the distinction between a Christmas song and a carol). And his opinions seem wedged into what is otherwise an objective look at the history of a song -- I frankly found myself not caring what this guy thought -- I just wanted to know what he knew. I'd say get it if "White Christmas" is your favorite song and if you don't already know too much about it or about Irving Berlin, but otherwise find yourself a good Berlin bio and enjoy that.