Jewish songwriters and Xmas

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

(forwarded to me by a friend; perhaps of interest):

The Philadelphia Daily News
December 24, 2001

Santa Bubbe
How Jewish songwriters made Christmas (songs) bright
By Jonathan Takiff

ADAM SANDLER became a great booster for the Jewish entertainment industry a
few years back, when he came up with the "Hanukkah Song," bragging out loud
about which celebrities were "of the faith," from Michael Douglas to
half-Jewish Winona Ryder. Since then, a number of stars have found the
courage to come out of the closet - on TV shows like "Friends," "Seinfeld"
and even "South Park."

But probably because he didn't want to baffle and confuse the world, Sandler
didn't brag about one of show business' strangest  phenomena. Namely, that
Jews write the best Christmas songs. We're talking about the holiday songs
that have been around for decades, that everybody knows and still sings, 
year
in, year out - even mishpokhe like Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond.

You know "White Christmas," the classic of all holiday refrains and maybe 
the
biggest-selling song of all time? Irving Berlin, a  Russian immigrant Jew,
wrote that one.

How 'bout "The Christmas Song" (aka "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire")? A
young mensch named Mel Torme put that poem to song one sunny day in
California. The royalties kept him in lox and bagels for the rest of his
life.

Even the legend of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," the Santa-saving hero 
of
TV shows, children's books and more than 300 recordings, owes his calling to
a Jewish guy, novelty songwriter Johnny Marks.

'Tis the season

It's not like Jews (and yours truly is one of 'em) care all that much about
Jesus - even though he was one of us. The rarely spoken truth about
Jewish-scribed Christmas songs is that they never ever mention Jesus. And of
the major league smashes we've mentioned so far, only Torme's classic even
mentions the Big Guy (in the oft-dropped closing benediction "and God send
you a happy New Year").

What made these songs universally acceptable is that they focus not on
religion but on the warm and fuzzy sentimentality of the season. Like the
postcard imagery of falling snow and roaring fires - on Hebrew brethren 
Sammy
Cahn and Jule Styne's cuddle-up cutey, "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It
Snow." Or the joy of being together, sharing love and kindness - as on Jerry
Herman's "We Need a Little Christmas" and Al Stillman's "(There's No Place
Like) Home for the Holidays."

Also clearly thinking season rather than sanctity was Frank Loesser when he
wrote "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" It's a perfect piece of songcraft
that still pops up on many a new holiday-themed album.

In essence, these Jewish composers have delivered musical motifs that are
applicable and inclusive whether you're Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Quaker or
Baha'i. And they are true "standards" in the sense that "any kind of singer
can handle them," notes Vince Gill, who happily sheds his "country" brand
identification when he tries them on.

Schlocky, but nice

Irving Berlin himself was the ultimate in split personality and ecumenical
embrace. In his daughter Mary Ellin Barrett's book, "Irving Berlin: A
Daughter's Memoir," she recalls that her father was not religious, but
"ethically and culturally he was Jewish."

"Most of his closest friends and associates in show business were Jewish, 
and
there is lots of Jewish influence in his music. His father was a cantor, and
he absorbed Jewish music in his younger years."

Ah, but after his first wife died on their honeymoon, and he married for a
second time, it was to an upper-crust Irish Catholic liberal named Ellin, 
and
they raised daughter Mary Ellin and her sister with both Jewish and 
Christian
traditions.

>From the beginning of Berlin's songwriting career, cranking out snappy
ditties for the vaudeville stage, he was working in all sorts of idioms, 
from
"My Yiddisha Nightingale" to "Latins Know How," "When You Kiss an Italian
Girl" and even "Oh, How That German Could Love."

Nothing could top his "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade" - ironically, 
the
most popular American songs about the two most important Christian holidays.

In "Operation Shylock," author Philip Roth (Jewish) gently took Berlin to
task over these unlikely accomplishments: "God gave Moses the Ten
Commandments and He gave to Irving Berlin 'Easter Parade' and 'White
Christmas,' the two holidays that celebrate the divinity of Christ - the
divinity that's at the very heart of the Jewish rejection of Christianity -
and what does Irving Berlin do? He de-Christs them both. Easter he turns 
into
a fashion show and Christmas into a holiday about snow. He turns their
religion into schlock. But nicely! So nicely the goyim don't even know what
hit them."

Berlin's Yule ties

OK, so maybe Roth is being a little harsh. Berlin biographer Lawrence
Bergreen says that the composer's wishing out loud for Christmases "just 
like
the ones we used to know" was grounded in reality.

"He had nostalgic memories of childhood Christmases on the Lower East Side,
and especially of the Christmas tree belonging to his neighbors, the
O'Haras," Bergreen says.

There's another reason Irving got all weepy around this holiday. In 1928, 
his
son Irving Jr. died on Christmas Day, just three weeks after he was born.
Forever after that, Christmas Day in the Berlin household included a visit 
to
their son's grave.

Let us also not forget that this song was written in wartime and first
performed in public by Bing Crosby on Christmas Day 1941, just 18 days after
Pearl Harbor.

While featured in the film "Holiday Inn" (later remade as "White 
Christmas"),
it was Armed Forces Radio that made the song a big hit with U.S. troops
abroad, expressing their longings for home and hearth. Berlin called his
composition "a peace song in wartime," and 60 years later, it's still 
working
the same charms.

By contrast, the back story for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" marks it as
a pure piece of secularized marketing hokum.

As retold in Dave Marsh and Steve Propes' tome "Merry Christmas, Baby -
Holiday Music From Bing to Sting," the "legend" of the heroic reindeer with
the lightbulb-bright nose was dreamed up as a poem by advertising copy 
writer
Robert Mays to be handed out to holiday shoppers at Montgomery Ward stores.
When the retailer finally gave up on the promotion, Mays regained ownership
and handed it over to his brother-in-law Johnny Marks, who came up with the
jingle-like tune.

This secular celebration would rack up 90 million sales on more than 300
different recordings (starting with cowboy Gene Autry's mega-hit and
including notable spinoffs like Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run.")

It also sparked a lifelong career for Marks. He became a holiday 
music-making
machine, also scoring hits with "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (a 
biggie
for Brenda Lee) and "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (done up by Burl Ives.)

Songs that sleigh

Maybe because they don't feel any sanctimonious spiritual constraints, 
Jewish
songwriters have long felt free to take liberties with the holidays. In so
doing, they kick-started the now-rampant trend to refashion Christmas cheer
in all sorts of musical garb.

Jewess Joan Javits had a hand in the bluesy seduction of the man with the
beard, "Santa Baby," as done up by those temptresses Eartha Kitt and 
Madonna.

Social satirist Stan Freberg mocked Berlin's classic and the
commercialization of the season with the brilliant "Green Christmas" (green
as in money) and "Christmas Dragnet," a spoof of Jack Webb's TV detective
show (and the holiday) that goes a-hunting Santa for the crime of breaking
and entering.

Harry Shearer's Christian alter-ego Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap takes credit
for the heavy-metal nonsense "Christmas With the Devil."

Songwriter Albert Hague (best known as the music teacher in "Fame")
Seussified the season with "You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch."

And New Yorkers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller gave Elvis Presley reason to
wiggle and rock on his classic "Christmas Album" with "Santa Claus Is Back 
In
Town." Music critic Charles Perry said that "placing this song on an album 
of
Christmas standards was like finding a hamburger in a medicine cabinet."

Ah, but all-inclusive assimilation music isn't all that Jews have 
contributed
to the holiday festivities. In fact, the second-most popular traditional
Christmas carol (after "Silent Night") owes its existence to a Jew.

Paris-based composer Adolphe Adam wrote the melody for "O Holy Night." While
his lyrical collaborator was not also of the faith, Placide Cappeau did
repudiate Christianity and embrace free thought late in life. It's been
suggested that these incongruities explain why "O Holy Night" temporarily
fell out of favor in churches in some regions in the late 19th and early 
20th
centuries.

But you can't keep a good tune down for long, eh, Irving? I just wish you'd
also dreamed up a Hanukkah song that makes the whole world sing.





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