The very fact of (“Jingle Bells’”) popularity has to do (with) the very catchy melody of the song, and not to be only understood in terms of its origins in the minstrel tradition.
My article tried to tell the story of the first performance of the song, I do not connect this to the popular Christmas tradition of singing the song now. Stream ad-free with Amazon Music Unlimited on mobile, desktop, and tablet. … I, in no way, recommended that it stopped being sung by children.” Jingle Bell Rock song from the album 35 Essential Christmas Favourites is released on Nov 2013. Listen to your favorite songs from Jingle Bell Rock (Amazon Original) by Alessia Cara Now. Minstrelsy was a then-popular form of entertainment in which white actors performed in blackface.īut when told that Council Rock has removed ‘Jingle Bells” based partly on her research, Hamill responded in an email: “I am actually quite shocked the school would remove the song from the repertoire. She found documents showing that the song’s first public performance may have occurred in 1857 at a Boston minstrel show. Pierpont, and the popularity of sleigh songs in the mid-1800s. Steve from Toronto, Canada I remember my Grandparents who bought the 45 rpm record Jingle Bell Rock back around 1958.They used to play this record for me when I was 3 yrs old on their hi-fi record player. Hamill’s article is a deep dive (nearly 12,000 words including appendices and footnotes) into the origin of “Jingle Bells,” the life of its composer, James L. Tappon and other staff confirmed by email that the decision to remove the song was based in part on information in a 2017 article written by professor Kyna Hamill, director of Boston University’s Core Curriculum.