In 2009, the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) released a list of the "holiday" songs that were performed the most (primarily via radio broadcasts) in the United States during the decade 2000-2009. The data was compiled with the help of Mediaguide, "the most comprehensive digital audio performance tracking technology in the world." For the survey, "holiday" referred to the Christmas -- or winter -- holiday period. While most of these songs are generally considered to be "Christmas songs", some of them actually do not mention anything about Christmas. For instance, the #1 holiday song of the decade, "Winter Wonderland", is primarily about building a snowman, with no religious indications (unless "Parson Brown" is considered an important Christian figure). Similarly, the #3 holiday song, "Sleigh Ride," is about, well, a sleigh ride. In this case, one must assume "Farmer Gray" raises succotash rather than raising Cain in a fiery church sermon after his birthday party.
If we exclude the non-secular songs from the list of 25, we are left with 19. Amazingly, of the top 10 most popular Christmas songs of the decade, only one (#2 below) is written by a Christian. Here is that list:
Top 10 Most Performed Christmas Songs, 2000-2009
1. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) -- By Mel Tormé (son of Russian Jewish immigrants) and Robert Wells (Robert Levinson), Jewish, born in Washington
2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas -- By Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin
3. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town -- By J. Fred Coots, Jewish, born in Brooklyn
4. White Christmas -- By Irving Berlin (Israel Baline), born a Russian Jew. Note: He wrote dozens of other well known songs (see below).
5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer -- By Johnny Marks, Jewish, born in New York
6. Little Drummer Boy -- Arranged by Harry Simeone (Harry Moses Simeone), Jewish, born in New Jersey
7. It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year -- By George Wyle (Bernard Weissman), Jewish, born in New York. Note: He also wrote the theme for "Gilligan's Island".
8. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree -- Also by Johnny Marks
9. Silver Bells -- By Jay Livingston (Jacob Harold Levison) and Ray Evans; both were Jews, born in Pennsylvania and New York, respectively. Note: These two also wrote the songs "Mona Lisa" and "Que Sera Sera", as well as the themes for "Bonanza" and "Mr. Ed".
10. A Holly Jolly Christmas -- Yet another by Johnny Marks
Top 3 Most Performed Non-Secular Holiday Songs, 2000-2009
The top three non-secular Christmas holiday songs were also written by Jews:
1. (#1 overall) Winter Wonderland -- Composed by Felix Bernard (Felix Bernhardt), son of Russian and German Jewish immigrants
2. (#3 overall) Sleigh Ride -- Mitchell Parish (Michael Hyman Pashelinsky), born a Lithuanian Jew
3. (#7 overall) Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! -- Sammy Cahn (Samuel Cohen), son of Jewish immigrants from Poland; and Jule Styne (Julius Kerwin Stein), born in England of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine
Additional interesting, related facts:
-- The #1 selling Christmas album of all time is "Miracles: the Holiday Album". This is an instrumental collection by Kenny G. The "G" stands for "Gorelick," as in "Kenneth Gorelick", the Jewish saxophonist from Seattle who is the biggest selling musician ever.
-- The #1 selling Christmas album of all time by a male singer is "Noël." The singer is Josh Groban. Although Groban was raised as a Christian, his surname "Groban" is from his Jewish father.
-- The #1 most recorded holiday song of all time is "White Christmas," listed above at #4 in playtime for the decade. This song has been covered by over 500 artists since its debut by Bing Crosby in 1941. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Crosby version is the best-selling single of all time, of any song of any genre.
-- Arguably the most popular song for the Christian Easter holiday is "Easter Parade." This was also written by Irving Berlin (the composer of "White Christmas"). In addition, he composed one of the most popular patriotic American songs: "God Bless America".
I was going to list the top 10 most popular Hannukkah songs composed by non-Jews, but I couldn't even find that many by Jews.
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