White Christmas (film) - Songs

Songs

  • "White Christmas" (Crosby)
  • "The Old Man" (Crosby, Kaye, and Men's Chorus)
  • Medley: "Heat Wave"/"Let Me Sing and I'm Happy"/"Blue Skies" (Crosby & Kaye)
  • "Sisters" (Clooney & Vera-Ellen)
  • "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" (Kaye with Vera-Ellen)
  • "Sisters (reprise)" (lip synced by Crosby and Kaye)
  • "Snow" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Vera-Ellen)
  • Minstrel Number: "I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show"/"Mister Bones"/"Mandy" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney,& Chorus)
  • "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep" (Crosby & Clooney)
  • "Choreography" (Kaye)
  • "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing (reprise)" (Kaye & Chorus)
  • "Abraham" (instrumental)
  • "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me" (Clooney)
  • "What Can You Do with a General?" (Crosby)
  • "The Old Man (reprise)" (Crosby & Men's Chorus)
  • "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Stevens)
  • "White Christmas (finale)" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney, Stevens & Chorus)

All songs were written by Irving Berlin. The centerpiece of the film is the title song, first used in Holiday Inn, which consequently won that film an Oscar for Best Original Song twelve years earlier. In addition, Count Your Blessings earned the picture its own Oscar nomination in the same category.

The song "Snow" was originally written for Call Me Madam with the title "Free", but was dropped in out-of-town tryouts. The melody and some of the words were kept, but the lyrics were changed to be more appropriate for a Christmas movie. For example, one of the lines of the original song is:

"Free — the only thing worth fighting for is to be free.
Free — a different world you'd see if it were left to me."

A composer's demo of the original song can be found on the CD Irving Sings Berlin.

The song, "What Can You Do with a General?" was originally written for an un-produced project called Stars on My Shoulders.

Trudy Stevens provided the singing voice for Vera-Ellen, except for "Sisters", where Rosemary Clooney sang both parts. When the time came to record the soundtrack album, Clooney's contract with Columbia Records made it impossible for her to participate, therefore Peggy Lee stepped in. A soundtrack album with Crosby, Kaye, Clooney, and Stevens was not released until the recent CD anniversary reissue, in which the songs were taken directly from the film.

There are brief renditions of other Berlin songs ("Heat Wave", "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy" and "Blue Skies").

Berlin wrote "A Crooner — A Comic" for Crosby and his planned co-star Donald O'Connor, but when O'Connor left the project so did the song. Crosby and Kaye also recorded another Berlin song ("Santa Claus") for the opening WWII Christmas Eve show scene, but it was not used in the final film; their recording of the song survives, however.

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