I'll Be Home for Christmas
The story behind the song "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with references to Library of Congress collections.
[A Christmas present]. Perry Barlow, artist. [1940]. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.I'll be home for Christmas
you can plan on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe
and presents on the tree...
In 1943, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" joined "White Christmas" to become one of America's most popular homegrown holiday songs. Recorded in a rich baritone by Bing Crosby, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" shot to the top ten of the record charts (as "White Christmas" had for Crosby the previous year) and became a holiday musical tradition in the United States.
The label on Crosby's recording credits "I'll Be Home for Christmas" to Kent, Gannon, and Ram. Later recordings usually credit only Kent and Gannon. The discrepancy arose from the fact that on December 21, 1942 Sam "Buck" Ram copyrighted a song titled "I'll Be Home for Christmas (Tho' Just in Memory)" although, it should be noted, that version bore little or no resemblance, other than its title, to the Crosby recording.
A song titled "I'll Be Home for Christmas" was also copyrighted on August 24, 1943, by Walter Kent (music) and James "Kim" Gannon (words). Kent and Gannon revised and re-copyrighted their song on Sep. 27, 1943, and it was this version that was made famous by Bing Crosby.
On October 4, 1943, Crosby recorded "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra for Decca Records. Within about a month of its being copyrighted the song hit the music charts and remained there for eleven weeks, peaking at number three. The following year, the song reached number nineteen on the charts. It touched a tender place in the hearts of Americans, both soldiers and civilians, who were then in the depths of World War II, and it earned Crosby his fifth gold record. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" became the most requested song at Christmas U.S.O. shows in both Europe and the Pacific and Yank, the GI magazine, said Crosby accomplished more for military morale than anyone else of that era.
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" was recorded by Perry Como (1946), Frank Sinatra (1957) and countless other artists. And the team of Kent and Gannon continued to write songs, although none attained the popularity of 'I'll Be Home for Christmas. Kent also composed the hit song, "(There'll Be Blue Birds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover," with the lyricist Nat Burton.
In December 1965, having completed the first U.S. space rendezvous and set a record for the longest flight in the U.S. space program, the astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell hurtled back to earth aboard their Gemini 7 spacecraft. Asked by NASA communication personnel if they wanted any particular music piped up to them, the crew requested Bing Crosby's recording of "I'll Be Home for Christmas."
Learn More About It
- See and hear veterans' stories (Veterans History Project)
Related Items
Related Web Sites
- U.S.O. Web site External link
- Bing Crosby External link (Official site)
- Gemini 7 Spacecraft (NASA)
Print Bibliography
- Collins, Ace. Stories behind the best-loved songs of Christmas. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2001. Call number: ML1400 .C62 2001.
- Ewen, David, ed. American popular songs from the Revolutionary War to the present. New York: Random House, 1966. Call number: ML128 .N3 E9.
- Whitburn, Joel. Joel Whitburn's pop hits, 1940-1954: compiled from Billboard's pop singles charts 1940-1954. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, 1994. Call number: ML156.4 .P6 W495 1994.