CSOTD 12/2/19: Party like it’s 1899

Before World War II, most Christmas music was shared in one of two ways. The more sacred songs usually were sung in church; the secular songs were sung by carolers or perhaps by families gathered around the piano in the parlor. Note that regardless whether it was “Silent Night” or “Here We Come a-Wassailing,” it was sung and not simply listened to.

That began to change with the astounding success of Bing Crosby’s 1942 recording of “White Christmas,” which is regarded as either the biggest-selling or second-biggest-selling recording of all time. Anyone who complains about modern “Christmas creep,” please take note that this landmark recording was the #1 single on the Billboard best-seller chart for the week ending October 31, 1942. Yes, it was the best-selling 78 rpm single as of Halloween that year, and it stayed there right through the end of the year.

Before 1942, plenty of Christmas music was recorded, first to wax cylinders and later to flat records. Most of it didn’t sell well, thus it has been lost to history. In at least one case, this is true literally.

On October 30, 1889, a banjo player named Will Lyle (real name William B. Lomas, 1859-1941) went into Thomas Edison’s recording studio and waxed a version of “Jingle Bells” for an Edison cylinder. No copy of this is known to exist anywhere, not even at the Smithsonian or the National Archives. It is possibly the Holy Grail for Christmas-music collectors.

After that, the next known recording of a Christmas song still does exist, and it is my Christmas Song of the Day for December 2.

In 1896, a group calling itself the Edison Male Quartette (John Bieling, Jere Mahoney, S.H. Dudley, and William F. Hooley, with Mahoney quickly replaced by Harry Macdonough) formed for the purpose of making recordings for Edison. The group later became known as the Haydn Quartet after signing with the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1902; arguably, they were the most popular recording act during the first decade of the 20th century. They would break up in 1914 as a couple of the group’s members found greater success as solo artists. Their June 1898 recording of “Sleighride Party,” released as Edison Gold Moulded Cylinder #2218, is now considered the oldest extant Christmas disc. (Yes, the disc spelled “sleigh ride” as one word.)

On this disc, the quartet are celebrating the winter season in a skit. They quickly break into two choruses of “Jingle Bells” and conclude with a version of “Goodnight Ladies” before their sleigh clip-clops into the distance. It’s quaint yet compelling, and it sold well. The quartet re-recorded it more than once for Edison; confusingly, all of them used the same catalog number of 2218.

Interestingly, the success of this cylinder inspired a cover version, by a group calling itself the Greater New York Quartet. This was recorded for the competing Columbia Phonograph Company, probably also in 1898, and released on cylinder #9040.

The Edison recording is in the public domain and has appeared on CD collections of early cylinder Christmas recordings. Step into your handiest time machine and listen to this landmark 1898 Christmas disc.