On the morning of January 8th, 1940 Irving Berlin, turned up at his Broadway publishing office. Without missing a beat he announced he’d written a song over the weekend. “Not only is it the best song I ever wrote,” he told Kresa. “It’s the best song anybody ever wrote.” ? If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at: The Story Of Carols   Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennials to pop tunes, you get more than a hundred of the best Holiday tunes, and their most interesting recordings. Oh! It also includes th ..read more

The Nutcracker is the Olympics of ballet. Even people who actively dislike sport - watch the Olympics, and are be moved by the pageantry, dedication and physical skill. For the participants, it’s the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Exactly the same can be said for The Nutcracker. But no one expected a children’s fairy tale to become the worlds best known ballet. ? If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at: The Story Of Carols   Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennials to pop tunes, you get more than a hu ..read more

We tend to think of “Good King Wenceslaus” as an Old English carol. But Wenceslaus, is an historic figure from first millennium Bohemia... what is now the Czech Republic. And he wasn’t a king - he was a Duke. His story though, has all the palace intrigue of a Shakespeare tragedy. ? If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at: The Story Of Carols Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennials to pop tunes, you get more than a hundred of the best Holiday tunes, and their most interesting recordings. Oh! It also includes ..read more

The main motif of Carol of The Bells is only four notes, but Mykola Leontovych managed to get far more out of them than the sum of their parts. Considering the strife going on all around him, it’s amazing that he was able to write music at all. ? If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at: The Story Of Carols Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennials to pop tunes, you get more than a hundred of the best Holiday tunes, and their most interesting recordings. Oh! It also includes the music from The Story Of Carols ..read more

1945 was one of the hottest on summers on record. And that’s when the power of positive thinking produced one of the best loved Christmas songs of all time. ? If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at: The Story Of Carols Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennials to pop tunes, you get more than a hundred of the best Holiday tunes, and their most interesting recordings. Oh! It also includes the music from The Story Of Carols! Happy Holidays! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3tSMBpNpX9bnpQBWtoLK15?si=d43ebb02bda ..read more

George Gershwin never officially wrote a Christmas tune. But one of his little known, show tunes, “Snow Flakes,” is beginning to turn up as a carol in waiting. ? If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at: The Story Of Carols Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennials to pop tunes, you get more than a hundred of the best Holiday tunes, and their most interesting recordings. Oh! It also includes the music from The Story Of Carols! Happy Holidays! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3tSMBpNpX9bnpQBWtoLK15?si=d43ebb02 ..read more

We’ve all heard of having a cup of wassail at Christmas time. We’ve even heard of wassailing as an event, - a celebration of merriment, as in “here we come a wassailing.” But did you know we still go a wassailing today? ? If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at: The Story Of Carols   Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennials to pop tunes, you get more than a hundred of the best Holiday tunes, and their most interesting recordings. Oh! It also includes the music from The Story Of Carols! Happy Holidays! h ..read more

The Story Of Carols - "Silent Night, Holy Night" A damaged pipe organ, a part time organist, and a forgotten poem all came together to create one of the best loved carols of all time. ? If you enjoyed this episode check out the film version at: The Story Of Carols   Check Out Some Of Our Favorite Versions of Silent Night Bing Crosby - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GUnfLPpjLs Perry Como - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGgCsHassPQ Ella Fitzgerald - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXCgyWwwWxU Dinah Washington - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WESm-X_RaVs   Follow Jim Holthouser on ..read more

The Story Of Carols - A Civil War Christmas It’s ironic that an act as divisive as the Civil War, would unify the way Americans celebrate Christmas. But, the holiday we know today largely came into existence in and around the war. ? If you enjoyed this episode check out the film version at: The Story Of Carols   Check Out Some of Our Favorite Civil War Era Christmas Tunes Up On The House Top - The Pentatonix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc9eU4qOyHY Jingle Bells - Michael Buble - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx-DvH41Tjo Silent Night - Bing Crosby - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GU ..read more

The Story Of Carols - Rise Up Shepherd and Follow A young woman working as a secretary, helped save more than a hundred African American Spirituals , and she did it all in the south, during the Civil War. ? If you enjoyed this episode check out the film version at: The Story Of Carols   Check Out Some Of Our Favorite Versions of Rise Up Shepherd and Follow Mary J Blige - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-nIx0z1iwc Vanessa Williams - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-mmQt_ZM34 The Winans - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxGsSIpRp0Q   Follow Jim Holthouser on Spotify   To support ..read more