It’s amazing sometimes how one’s mind can wander while singing a song.
And I’m not talking about singing along with the car radio or lulling your grandbaby to sleep. I’m talking about singing while rehearsing with your chorus or choir or (I must ask for forgiveness here) even sometimes in worship services.
Your lips are still forming the words. Your vocal cords are still producing the correct sound. But your mind has taken a small side trip.
That’s what happened to me recently as my chorus was singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Our director had told us we were going to sing only the first verse because the latter verses got into a whole ‘nuther story – basically one of musical extortion.
In case you’ve forgotten the last two verses, they go like this:
So bring us some figgy pudding,
So bring us some figgy pudding,
So bring us some figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer! …
We won’t go until we get some,
We won’t go until we get some,
We won’t go until we get some, so bring it right here!
Pretty bold, don’t you think? That’s what made my mind go on holiday.
So I did a tad of research about those lyrics, and here’s what I found.
The song comes from 16th-century England, likely the West Country, and unlike many carols, it was not written for church use at all. It grew out of a tradition called wassailing, in which poorer villagers went door-to-door singing to wealthier neighbors in exchange for food and drink.
That famous line “Oh, bring us some figgy pudding … and bring it right here” isn’t a suggestion. It’s a demand. And the follow-up – “We won’t go until we get some” makes that perfectly clear.
In other words, this beloved, jolly sing-along is essentially a musical shakedown – good-natured, yes, but rooted in real social imbalance.
So I guess our director’s idea to use the short-cut lyrics was spot-on.
Of course, this got me to thinking about the origins of other Christmas carols that Southern A’Chord sang this year. A little more digging turned up a few odd – and sometimes humorous – facts.
– “Jingle Bells” – Written in the 1850s and originally called “One-Horse Open Sleigh,” the song was initially connected with Thanksgiving rather than Christmas. Winter imagery – not theology – eventually pushed it toward the latter celebration.
Another fun tidbit: “Jingle Bells” was the first tune broadcast from space. Astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford on Gemini 6A in 1965 performed it using a harmonica and jingle bells they smuggled aboard for a prank on Mission Control.
– “White Christmas” – It’s easy to assume this song originated with the 1954 movie of the same name – I once did myself – until you learn it first appeared in the 1942 film “Holiday Inn,” sung by Bing Crosby. The first public performance, however, came even earlier, when Crosby sang it on NBC’s The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day 1941, just weeks after Pearl Harbor.
It went on to become the best-selling single of all time, according to the “Guinness Book of World Records” – quite an achievement for composer Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant who didn’t celebrate Christmas.
– “Sing We Noel” – This lively tune sounds ancient – and partly is – but not entirely. The melody comes from a French carol, “Noel Nouvelet,” dating back at least to the 15th or 16th century. The English lyrics, however, are much more modern, adapted over time for choral use. It’s one of many “traditional carols” that are really musical hybrids – ancient melodies wearing newer words.
That’s all I have room for now. We’ll have to wait for another installment on additional songs that surely must have interesting backgrounds – “Christmas Chopsticks” and “Diddly Squat,” for instance. I mean, with titles like those, how could they not come with stories attached?
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Sallie Rose Hollis lives in Ruston and retired from Louisiana Tech as an associate professor of journalism and the assistant director of the News Bureau. She can be contacted at sallierose@mail.com.
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