You probably know every word to your favourite Christmas Songs, but what about where they came from? Join Drew Savage every week for a new story behind the song as he goes Behind The Christmas Hits!
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It's a modern day Christmas classic that hit the top 10 in over 20 countries - including Canada! It's recently been named one of the best Christmas songs of all time. This is the story behind Ariana Grande's "Santa Tell Me." Join Drew Savage for Behind The Christmas Hits - Season 3!
Many of the songs we feature have largely unknown origins - but that is not the case with this song! Still, do you know which singer was still in New York when the recording session began? And who is the one American band featured on this song? Join Drew Savage for Behind The Christmas Hits - Season 3!
Darlene Love is a Rock n Roll Hall of Famer - but her most famous song is a Christmas song! Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). That's not her only Christmas hit though! In this episode, Darlene Love joins us to tell us the story of All Alone on Christmas (From Home Alone 2). Stay tuned next week for two new episodes of Behind the Christmas Hits!
You know there are some singers that are just so synonymous with Christmas music, that for a lot of people it just doesn't feel like the holidays without THEIR music! Join Drew Savage as he takes chats with the Christmas Music Legend himself, Johnny Mathis!
Mariah Carey is the voice of one of the biggest Christmas Hits of all time... she should have been the voice of a second! Join Drew Savage as he takes you through the Christmas hit that is "Where Are You At Christmas."
The first big city Christmas song should have been a hit for Bob Hope - but bad timing means Bing Crosby would get credit for creating ANOTHER classic! Join Drew Savage as he takes you through the Christmas hit that is "Silver Bells."
One of the most famous Christmas Songs of all wasn't even written about the season... and has an ugly history. Join Drew Savage as he takes you through the Christmas hit that is "Jingle Bells."
One of the most famous Christmas Duets of all time only exists because one of the singers wanted NO part of the original idea! Join Drew Savage as he takes you through the Christmas hit that is "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy."
It's the song that helped Andy Williams earn the nickname "Mr. Christmas"! Join Drew Savage as he takes you behind the Christmas hit that is "The Most Wonderful Time of The Year."
A challenge to write a second Christmas as good as his first resulted in a song that achieved even more success! Join Drew Savage as he takes you behind the Christmas hit that is "Please Come Home For Christmas."
A last minute change of plans in one of the most popular Christmas specials ever meant this throwaway song had a chance to become a classic! Join Drew Savage as he takes you through the Christmas hit that is "Holly Jolly Christmas."
Rolling Stone declared Darlene Love's Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) The Greatest Rock n Roll Christmas Song Ever! And who better to walk through this song with Drew Savage than the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer herself - Darlene Love!
It's been called a Norman Rockwell painting come to life, but did you know if was written in Canada? Join Drew Savage as he takes you behind the Christmas hit - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!
It's the story behind a Christmas hit by a boyband released at the very peak of their powers. Join Drew Savage as he takes you behind the Christmas hit that is NSYNC's "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays."
After having the best year of his career, Elton John wanted to say thanks to his fans and give them a Christmas classic. Join Drew Savage as he takes you behind the Christmas hit that is Elton John's "Step into Christmas."
The only Christmas album by a male singer to debut at #1 turns 10 years old this year - and It's by a Canadian! Join Drew Savage as he takes you behind the Christmas hit that is Justin Bieber's Mistletoe.
What song had the longest journey ever to become #1? It's Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas is You. It was 1993 and Mariah’s then husband and head of her record company, Tommy Mottola, began strategizing with his team about her next career move. To everyone’s surprise, they decided a Christmas album was the way to go. Mariah couldn’t understand why. Her most recent album, Music Box, had been her biggest success yet - the album sold more than 28 million copies worldwide. An album of Christm...
How did seeing a group of teenagers dancing to Elvis music on the beach in the middle of summer inspire one of the biggest Christmas hits of all? This is the story behind… Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree. Nobody wrote more Christmas hits than Johnny Marks. His biggest was his first in 1949: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Over the course of his career, he’d also write Run Run Rudolph, Holly Jolly Christmas, Silver and Gold and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree. It was 1958 – one year after Bob...
How did the fallout of a performance at the 1968 World Series lead to the only English line in the biggest Spanish Christmas song of all time? This is the story behind…Feliz Navidad. Not many iconic Christmas songs have been written after 1970, but Feliz Navidad is one of them. It was written and recorded by Puerto Rican singer/songwriter José Feliciano. José was recording a Christmas album and producer Rick Jarrod told him he should write an original to include on it. José felt the idea was kin...
Rudolph and Frosty teamed up for a TV special in 1979, but their relationship goes back a lot further than that. In fact, you could say the song Frosty the Snowman is a direct sequel to Rudolph. Gene Autry had made Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer a huge hit in 1949 and like the true businessman he was, he wanted to do more of the same. Remember, this was a singer who eventually became the owner of a Major League Baseball team – Gene Autry was savy. Enter songwriters Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson....
It is not at all a stretch to say that this is one of the most important songs to ever be recorded in music history. This is the story of White Christmas. Written by Irving Berlin and sung by Bing Crosby for the 1942 movie, Holiday Inn. Crosby played Jim Hardy – an entertainer who turns his farm into a vacation spot that would only be open on holidays. Irving Berlin was commissioned to write a song about each of the different major holidays. Legend has it that he told his musical secretary back ...
It was a Christmas hit that literally had to be rescued from the trash! This is the story behind…Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. It was written for Judy Garland’s 1944 movie Meet Me in St. Louis. The film was notable for a couple of reasons: the song and for being where Judy and the film’s director, Vincent Minnelli, met and fell in love. They married in 1945 and then Liza Minnelli was born the next year. The movie tells a year in the life of the Smith family beginning in 1903 and leadin...
This is the story of Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne were meeting with their publisher on one of the hottest days of the year at Hollywood & Vine in July 1945. A time before most people had air conditioning. It was reportedly Cahn who said to the other two men that it was too hot to work and they should really head to the beach, to which Styne replied: “why don’t we stay here and write a winter song?” The two songwriters were very different....
This Christmas hit was first recorded on October 4, 1943 by Bing Crosby. It was written by lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent for soldiers who were overseas for the holidays but longing to be home. Or…was it? This is the story of I’ll Be Home for Christmas. Many songs featured on Behind the Christmas Hits were not immediate hits and took time to grow in popularity. Not this one - It was released one year after Crosby’s iconic White Christmas came out and was an immediate hit, peaking a...
The role of the reindeer who saved Christmas was played by a young Canadian woman! This is the story Behind the Christmas Hit…Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The song Rudolph was written by Johnny Marks and first recorded by Gene Autry in 1949…but one of the reasons the song endures is because of the television special produced by Rankin Bass Productions in 1964. It has been broadcast on network television every year since, making it the longest continuously-running Christmas special of all time...
The first Christmas standard ever introduced by a black singer would go on to become the most performed Christmas song ever. This is the story behind…The Christmas Song. The story of how it was written is a famous one. In 1945, Mel Torme and Bob Wells would take turns going over to each other’s houses to write songs. On one smoking hot July day in Toluca Lake, California, Mel went to Bob’s house and found a spiral pad of paper sitting on the piano with four lines scribbled down. “Chestnuts roast...
Today, a Christmas hit written by a Canadian band for a big budget Christmas movie starring a Canadian actor! Today, it’s the story of Green Christmas by the Barenaked Ladies for the movie How The Grinch Stole Christmas! For this story, we hook up with the guitarist, lead singer and songwriter for Barenaked Ladies, Ed Robertson. Ed Robertson tells us about how the song came to be, being a big fan of Ron Howard, and tells us all about his memories of writing the song. Ed and Drew talk about their...
Donny Hathaway recognized that the Black experience was underrepresented in Christmas music, so he decided to change that. This is the story behind…This Christmas. The song Donny Hathaway would find was written 3 years before its release in the middle of a blizzard by a Chicago postal worker named Nadine McKinnor. Nadine would keep a notebook full of lyrics she’d jot down as they came to her. She told the Chicago Tribune that these lyrics were about her love affair with the season – the swirl of...
John Lennon wasn’t one to do things small. Whether it was his activism or his music, he wanted to touch as many people as possible...which is probably why it’s no surprise that he set himself a goal to write a Christmas song that would last forever. Here’s the story of how a slogan from a billboard campaign would go on to fulfill Lennon’s lofty ambitions. Today, Behind the Christmas Hits features John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War is Over).” All four Beatles have recorded solo Christmas songs but Joh...
This song is a pretty polarizing Christmas hit, but boy do a lot of people love it! Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. For this episode, Drew Savage sat down with Irish Rovers Founding Member George Millar! George walks us through the history of the song, and some fun facts behind the hit. George Millar explains how they Irish Rovers were not the first to record the song, but the first to release it Nationally. George tells us about the Canadian Connections to the song, its folk roots, how simp...
