Jingle Bells

This article was sent to me as the origin of the song Jingle Bells...haven't fact checked it but makes for an interesting story. Enjoy!

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The year was 1857. Pony express riders carried mail to the Wild West, England’s Queen Victoria sent greetings to U.S. President James Buchanan over the first Atlantic cable, and a Boston man published a holiday song that has remained popular for more than one hundred and fifty years.

The name of this song? It was copyrighted as “One Horse Open Sleigh,” but you probably know it as “Jingle Bells.” Many songbooks credit the song to “Traditional” or “Anonymous,” but the real composer was James Pierpont. I learned about him from Marilyn Pincus, who wrote:

“In 1850, James Pierpont was living at his father’s home in West Medford, Massachusetts. Winter sleigh rides provided recreation as well as transportation in New England; and frequent open-sleigh races were run near the Pierpont home.

“No doubt inspired by these spirited sleigh rides, James composed the tune to his now famous ‘One Horse Open Sleigh.’ Once he had the melody in mind, he walked to a nearby boarding house to try it out on the only piano in town. When he played his tune, Mary Waterman, one of the boarders, exclaimed, ‘That’s a merry jingle!’ Her comment probably influenced the lyrics Pierpont went on to write.

“James Pierpont died in 1893. Fifty years later, when Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded ‘Jingle Bells,’ over one million copies were sold. Technology had come a long way since the days of the pony express, and ‘Jingle Bells’ had come a long way since the day it was played on the only piano in town!”

Courtesy of  MSN Kids