Jingle bell rock song by bobby helms
Hank Garland died in 2004, still claiming he and Helms were owed millions from JBR songwriting royalties. Bad business decisions kept him from returning to his glory days. He never received songwriting royalties from “Jingle Bell Rock” but he did receive royalties as the recording artist for the song. In the years that followed, Bobby Helms never reached the top of the charts again, though he continued to perform until his passing in 1997. (NB: changes to an arrangement of a song don’t customarily affect ownership, but changes to the substance of the song-melody, chords, lyrics-do.) The phrase “jingle hop” in the first verse of the song was probably left over from the first song, but that alone would not be sufficient for Beal and Boothe to claim authorship. But six decades later we can’t say for certain whether the song was substantially “revised” or completely rewritten.
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Nevertheless, the authors of the original song, Joe Beal and Jim Boothe, got full credit for the new version and made a fortune off it.Īt the very least, Helms and Garland should have been granted co-writer credit, given the new melody, verses, bridge, and lyrics. The two of them considered it “a whole new song” and recorded their creation, “Jingle Bell Rock,” that night. “It wasn’t any good,” Garland recalled years later, explaining how he and Helms took a meat cleaver to the tune-changing the words and adding a bridge and new verses. At that time, Decca’s A&R man Paul Cohen convinced Helms to record a song titled “Jingle Bell Hop." Helms and his session guitar-player, Hank “Sugarfoot” Garland, tried to make this new song work, but just couldn’t. In late 1957 singer Bobby Helms was riding high with two back-to-back #1 country hits, “Fraulein” and “ My Special Angel,” which both charted on the Pop Top 40 as well. Unfortunately, there’s a business tale behind the song that’s not so cheery. And since 1957 this two-minute-and-twelve-second classic has been the standard bearer for holiday cheer. It’s as elegantly and tightly constructed as a Swiss watch, with no superfluous parts. I can hear your objections already: it’s FLUFF! Yup, but it’s fluff that’s superbly recorded, brilliantly arranged, and magnificently performed. It’s still considered the first rock & roll Christmas song-because this is what rock sounded like in its early years. Given its rockabilly feel (and its Andrews-Sisters-like background singing), it swings more than rocks, but that’s ok.
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It’s been getting steady play every December for 56 years now and has worked its way into dozens of Christmas ads, TV shows, and movies. 11 on Cashbox magazine's Top 60 on the week ending January 11, 1958.Īs of November 25, 2016, total sales of the digital track of Helms' original Decca recording stand at 780,000 downloads according to Nielsen SoundScan, placing it ninth on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles in SoundScan history.At this time of year there’s one traditional holiday pop-rock song that reigns supreme. 6 on the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart, and at No. It also crossed to the pop charts, peaking at No. 13 on Billboard's Most Played C&W by Jockeys chart, a predecessor to the Hot Country Songs chart. Helms' original version charted at No.
The song's title and some of its lyrics are an extension of the old Christmas standard, "Jingle Bells." It makes brief references to other popular songs of the 1950s, such as "Rock Around the Clock," and mentions going to a "Jingle hop." An electric guitar played by Hank Garland can be heard playing the first notes of the chorus of "Jingle Bells." Backup singers were the Anita Kerr Quartet.