Jingle Bell Rock

1957

Bobby Helms

Like I said yesterday, 1957 and 1958 were very very good years for new-classic Christmas songs...there were four of em released. Elvis' Blue Christmas...

...and the trio I'm covering today.

OK, What, Musically, speakin', do Brenda Lee, Chubby Checker, Hall & Oates, Kylie Minogue,, The Platters, and Victoria Justice all have in common? Anyone? Anyone?? Bueller? Beuller?

Give up?? All of 'em, along with around eighty other artists (Yep, I counted) have covered Bobby Helms' biggest hit, and all of us will, and indeed, have sung, hummed, head bobbed, and likely smiled when we heard that opening guitar riff accompanied by, what else, but jingle bells.

I'm of course talking about Bobby Helms Christmas mega-hit, Jingle Bell Rock. Bobby Helms was a Country singer , and Jingle Bell Rock's actually a 'Rockabilly' song rather than Rock, but no one really worries about the fine details here...everyone's loved it from the first time they heard those opening notes.

It was released two days before Christmas in 1957 and , despite the fact that Christmas wound down way quicker 54 years ago than it does now, made it to #6 on the Pop charts (Best Selling Singles, predecessor to The Hot 100)..and made it to #11 on the still-extant Crash-box Pop chart. It'd chart in '59 and '60 am well.

Literally everyone who has ever sung has covered it, and I'm not exaggerating. The list I spoke of earlier is just the ones who've either released it or performed it. It's shown up in more TV shows and Movies than you can shake the oft-mentioned stick at, and has a definite shot at 'Best Loved Modern Christmas Carol.'

And there's just no way you can not like 'Jingle Bell Rock. It's high energy, festive, fun, and one of those 'Crank The Dial Up' hits and has very definitely become a legitimate classic. Five Hundred years in the future, whatever technological advances have been made, and whatever our Great-great-great-great-great grandkids are listening to. There'll be radio stations playing Christmas music. And They'll hear Bobby Helms' Little Christmas Song That Became A Classic.

So Enjoy!! Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms

As a just a few bonuses...just a tiny sampling of the covers of this classic...

Brenda Lee Covered Jingle Bell Rock a couple of years after Bobby Helms version hit the charts...here's her version!

Chubby Checker teamed up with Bobby Rydell and charted with this version in 1961

The Platters also released a cover of Jingle Bell Rock, at just about the same time that Bill Haley and The Comets released one. To my ears they sound all but Identical...and both are equally awesome, so I flipped a coin. The Platters won it...

Hall And Oates released their version in 1983... They kept it traditional while adding a bit of their own style, and proved why the duo of Darryl Hall and John Oates will always be a classic in their own right.

Kylie Minogue, supporting the troops in East Timor , Christmas 1999...she went up-tempo with her version. She's another modern singer who's classy and a consummate pro as well as lovely, charismatic and uber-talented. Take note. Classy always wins.

Sometimes it's the younger artists that really kick butt with this one when they cover it....And Aly and AJ (Sisters Alison and Amanda Joy Michalka) nailed it spot on in their very-high-energy 2005 cover. Gotta admit I really like their version,. Catch one of the girls' 'How's that for a Christmas song!' at the end...That wasn't planned, but they and their label liked it so much that they kept it in.

Next, a very recent cover...Victoria Justice performing Jingle Bell Rock in a medley with Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree at the National Tree Lighting Ceremony in 2012. She swings into 'Jingle Bell Rock' seamlessly at the end of the medley. Vic, too, is as classy as they come, as well as lovely and talented..

And finally, Bea Miller, who was voted off X-Factor despite a lovely voice and an exponentially expanding fan-base, did a truly kick-ass' cover of Jingle Bell Rock in Decemer 2013. This lovely young lady snagged a record deal just about the time she walked out of the stage door after being voted off 'X-Factor, and this shows why she snagged it so quickly...this tiny and uber-talented young songstress has some serious pipes and stage-presence!



By the way...that unique and classic guitar-playin' in the original was courtesy of Hank 'Sugarfoot' Garland. He'd play guitar on another soon-to-be-Christmas classic about a year later, one recorded by a thirteen year old musical prodigy and bundle of energy nicknamed 'Little Miss Dynamite' Read on to the next post...