Old School Christmas

By: JOHN HUNNEMAN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, December 14, 2005 11:32 PM PST ∞

Tell Five for Fighting, Josh Groban and Coldplay to park their sleighs around the corner. When it comes to Christmas music on the radio, old school rules!

That's the result of a survey by a company that watches such things, said Tom Zarecki, spokesman for Media Monitors LLC.

The company tracks songs and commercials played on 50 all-Christmas stations across the country between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

None of the Top 10 Christmas songs played most often in 2004 were recorded in the past 30 years.

"The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole topped the "Christmas Ten" last year and undoubtedly will this year. Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas," "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee, "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby and "It's the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" by Andy Williams round out the top five.

Two songs recorded in the early 1970s ---- "Merry Christmas Darling" by The Carpenters and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by John & Yoko ---- made the list along with "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms, "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" by Johnny Mathis, and Gene Autry's "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Mel Torme and Bob Wells wrote "The Christmas Song" in 1944 on a hot July day in Los Angeles when the furthest thing from their minds was "chestnuts roasting on an open fire." The pair were simply jotting down on paper anything they could think of to help forget the heat.

All of the Top 10 songs are secular (nonreligious), the company reports. However, many traditional songs and carols are aired on the nation's radio stations, they just didn't make "Christmas Ten," Zarecki said.

The most frequently played traditional Christmas songs are: "Do You Hear What I Hear?," "O Holy Night," "Little Drummer Boy," "The First Noel," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "Joy To The World," "O Come All Ye Faithful," "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Away In A Manger."

Though it sounds as if written in the 1700s, Noel Regeny and his wife wrote "Do You Hear What I Hear?" in 1962 as their prayer for peace in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

"I am amazed that people can think they know the song, and not know it is a prayer for peace," Regeny said in a 1985 interview.

Regeny, though born in France, was drafted by the Nazi army but deserted and joined the French resistance.

After World War II, he came to New York and worked as an arranger, conductor and composer on television shows. He died in December 2002 at age 80.

Finally, whose festive songs are played most often this time of year? With 32 different tunes filling the holiday airwaves, say Merry Christmas to the "Chairman of the Board."

If you don't know who that is, perhaps you should stick with Five for Fighting.

Contact columnist John Hunneman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2603, or hunneman@californian.com.