1943 Holiday song by Walter Kent, Kim Gannon, Buck Ram
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent and recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, who scored a top ten hit with the song. Originally written to honor soldiers overseas who longed to be home at Christmas time, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" has since gone on to become a Christmas standard.
Theme
The song is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during World War II, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells his family he will be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him, and requests snow, mistletoe, and presents under the tree. The song ends on a melancholy note, with the soldier saying, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams". The flip side of the original recording (Decca 18570B) was "Danny Boy."
Writing and copyright
The song was written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent. Songwriter and later producer and manager for The Platters, Buck Ram, who said he previously wrote a poem and song with the same title, was credited as a co-writer of the song following a lawsuit brought by Ram's publisher, Mills Music. Bing Crosby's original 1943 release of the song on Decca Records listed only Walter Kent and Kim Gannon as the songwriters on the record label. Later pressings added the name of Buck Ram to the songwriting credit.
Bing Crosby recording
On October 1, 1943, Crosby recorded the song under the title "I'll Be Home for Christmas (If Only in My Dreams)", with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra for Decca Records; it was released as a 78 rpm single, Decca 18570A, Matrix #L3203, and reissued in 1946 as Decca 23779. Within a month of release, the song charted for 11 weeks, with a peak at number three. The next year, the song reached number 16 on the charts.
The U.S. War Department also released Bing Crosby's performance of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" from the December 7, 1944, Kraft Music Hall broadcast with the Henderson Choir, J.S.T., on V-Disc, as U.S. Army V-Disc No. 441-B and U.S. Navy V-Disc No. 221B, Matrix #VP1253-D5TC206. The song from the broadcast has appeared in many Bing Crosby compilations.
In the midst of World War II, the song touched the hearts of Americans, both soldiers and civilians, 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. The GI magazine Yank said Crosby "accomplished more for military morale than anyone else of that era".
1945 V-Disc release by the U.S. Army of "White Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" by Bing Crosby as No. 441B
Despite the song's popularity with Americans at the front and at home, in the UK the BBC banned the song from broadcast, as the Corporation's management felt the lyrics might lower morale among British troops.
Seventy-seven years after its original release, Bing Crosby's "I'll Be Home for Christmas" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (at number 50 on the chart dated January 2, 2021).
Charts
Notable history and cover versions
Elvis Presley recorded the song in September 1957, and was featured on the LP Elvis' Christmas Album.
Singer Johnny Mathis also covered the song on his Merry Christmas album in 1958, which was the #2 Christmas album of 1963 and 1964 as there were no Christmas album rankings prior to 1963. In December 1965, astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, while on Gemini 7, requested "I'll Be Home for Christmas" be played for them by the NASA ground crew. Since the incarnation of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1958, cover versions by Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello and American singers Kelly Clarkson and Josh Groban are the only versions of the song to enter the chart.
Kelly Clarkson version
Michael Bublé version
Brian McKnight version
Pentatonix version
Seth MacFarlane version
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Josh Groban version
Reba McEntire version
Rascal Flatts version
Sara Evans version
Elvis Presley and Carrie Underwood version
Camila Cabello version
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Certifications and sales
Michael Bublé
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Albums |
- Music of Hawaii (1939)
- Victor Herbert Melodies, Vol. One (1939)
- Patriotic Songs for Children (1939)
- Cowboy Songs (Bing Crosby's first solo album) (1939)
- Victor Herbert Melodies, Vol. Two (1939)
- George Gershwin Songs, Vol. One (1939)
- Ballad for Americans (Bing Crosby's first solo studio album)(1940)
- Favorite Hawaiian Songs (1940)
- Christmas Music (1940)
- Star Dust (1940)
- Hawaii Calls (1941)
- Small Fry (1941)
- Crosbyana (1941)
- Under Western Skies (1941)
- Song Hits from Holiday Inn (w/ Fred Astaire) (1942)
- Merry Christmas (1945)
- Selections from Going My Way (1945)
- Selections from The Bells of St. Mary's (1946)
- Don't Fence Me In (w/ The Andrews Sisters)(1946)
- The Happy Prince (1946)
- Selections from Road to Utopia (1946)
- Bing Crosby – Stephen Foster (1946)
- What We So Proudly Hail (1946)
- Favorite Hawaiian Songs, Vol. One (1946)
- Favorite Hawaiian Songs, Vol. Two (1946)
- Blue Skies (w/ Fred Astaire and Irving Berlin) (1946)
- Bing Crosby – Jerome Kern (1946)
- St. Patrick's Day (1947)
- Bing Crosby – Victor Herbert (1947)
- Cowboy Songs, Vol. One (1947)
- Selections from Welcome Stranger (1947)
- Our Common Heritage (1947)
- El Bingo (1947)
- The Small One (1947)
- The Man Without a Country (1947)
- Drifting and Dreaming (1947)
- Blue of the Night (1948)
- Selections from Showboat (1948)
- The Emperor Waltz (1948)
- St. Valentine's Day (1948)
- Bing Crosby Sings with Al Jolson, Bob Hope, Dick Haymes and the Andrews Sisters (1948)
- Selections from Road to Rio (1948)
- Bing Crosby Sings with Judy Garland, Mary Martin, Johnny Mercer (1948)
- Bing Crosby Sings with Lionel Hampton, Eddie Heywood, Louis Jordan (1948)
- Bing Crosby Sings the Song Hits from Broadway Shows (1948)
- Cowboy Songs, Vol. Two (1948)
- Auld Lang Syne (1948)
- Bing Crosby Sings Cole Porter Songs (1949)
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949)
- Bing Crosby Sings Songs by George Gershwin (1949)
- South Pacific (1949)
- Christmas Greetings (1949)
- Ichabod – The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949)
- Top o' the Morning / Emperor Waltz (1950)
- Songs from Mr. Music (w/ Dorothy Kirsten and The Andrews Sisters) (1950)
- Go West Young Man (w/ The Andrews Sisters) (1950)
- Collectors' Classics, Vols. 1–8 (1951)
- Way Back Home (1951)
- Bing Crosby Sings the Song Hits from... (1951)
- Bing and the Dixieland Bands (1951)
- Yours Is My Heart Alone (1951)
- Country Style (1951)
- Beloved Hymns (1951)
- Bing and Connee (w/ Connee Boswell) (1952)
- When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1952)
- Themes and Songs from The Quiet Man (w/ Victor Young) (1952)
- Selections from the Paramount Picture "Just for You" (w/ Jane Wyman and The Andrews Sisters) (1952)
- Road to Bali (w/ Bob Hope and Peggy Lee) (1952)
- Le Bing: Song Hits of Paris (1953)
- Some Fine Old Chestnuts (1954)
- Bing Sings the Hits (1954)
- Selections from White Christmas (w/ Peggy Lee and Danny Kaye) (1954)
- Bing: A Musical Autobiography (1954)
- The Country Girl / Little Boy Lost (1955)
- Merry Christmas (later version of 1945 78rpm album) (1955)
- Shillelaghs and Shamrocks (1956)
- Home on the Range (1956)
- Blue Hawaii (1956)
- High Tor (w/ Julie Andrews and Everett Sloane) (1956)
- A Christmas Sing with Bing Around the World (1956)
- Anything Goes (w/ Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor and Zizi Jeanmaire) (1956)
- High Society (w/ Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, and Louis Armstrong) (1956)
- Songs I Wish I Had Sung the First Time Around (1956)
- Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings (1956)
- Bing with a Beat (1957)
- A Christmas Story (1957)
- Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1957)
- New Tricks (1957)
- The Bible Story of Christmas (1957)
- Never Be Afraid (1958)
- Jack B. Nimble – A Mother Goose Fantasy (1958)
- Fancy Meeting You Here ( w/ Rosemary Clooney) (1958)
- Around the World with Bing! (1958)
- Bing in Paris (1958)
- That Christmas Feeling (1958)
- In a Little Spanish Town (1958)
- Bing’s Buddies and Beaus (1959)
- Say One for Me (w/ Debbie Reynolds and Robert Wagner) (1959)
- How the West Was Won (w/ Rosemary Clooney) (1960)
- Join Bing and Sing Along (1960)
- Bing & Satchmo (w/ Louis Armstrong) (1960)
- Songs of Christmas (1960)
- 101 Gang Songs (1961)
- El Señor Bing (1961)
- My Golden Favorites (1961)
- The Road to Hong Kong (1962)
- Bing's Hollywood (set of 15 albums) (1962)
- On the Happy Side (1962)
- I Wish You a Merry Christmas (1962)
- Holiday in Europe (1962)
- Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre (1963)
- Return to Paradise Islands (1964)
- America, I Hear You Singing (w/ Frank Sinatra and Fred Waring) (1964)
- Robin and the 7 Hoods (w/ Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.) (1964)
- 12 Songs of Christmas (w/ Frank Sinatra and Fred Waring) (1964)
- Bing Crosby Sings the Great Country Hits (1965)
- That Travelin' Two-Beat (w/ Rosemary Clooney) (1965)
- The Summit (w/ Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.) (1966)
- Bing Crosby's Treasury – The Songs I Love (1966)
- Bing Crosby and The Columbus Boychoir Sing Family Christmas Favorites (w/ The Columbus Boychoir) (1967)
- Thoroughly Modern Bing (1968)
- Bing Crosby's Treasury - The Songs I Love (1968 version) (1968)
- Hey Jude / Hey Bing! (1969)
- Goldilocks (1970)
- A Time to Be Jolly (1971)
- Bing 'n' Basie (w/ Count Basie) (1972)
- Rhythm on the Range (1972)
- I’ll Sing You a Song of the Islands (1972)
- A Southern Memoir (1975)
- That's What Life Is All About (1975)
- A Couple of Song and Dance Men (w/ Fred Astaire) (1975)
- Tom Sawyer (1976)
- At My Time of Life (1976)
- Bing Crosby Live at the London Palladium (1976)
- Feels Good, Feels Right (1976)
- Beautiful Memories (1977)
- Bingo Viejo (1977)
- Seasons (Bing Crosby's last studio album released during his lifetime) (1977)
- A Little Bit of Irish (posthumous edition, recorded in 1966) (1993)
- Bing Crosby: The Voice of Christmas (1998)
- On the Sentimental Side (posthumous edition, recorded in 1962; Bing Crosby's latest studio album) (2010)
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