"Jingle Bells"

Well last Sunday was our Kings Kids Christmas.  We sung three songs out in front of the adults at church.  While two of them were about the birth of Jesus the third song was the kids favorite pick "Jingle Bells."  While searching through all of YouTube video's to find this song I came across the original tune that actually had the story behind the song with it so I decided I would add this to my collection here with "Where Did that Song come from." 


This song was originally called "The One Horse Open Sleigh."  It was written by an American songwriter, arranger, composer, and organist, James Lord Pierpoint. It was published in August 1857 by Oliver Ditson and Co. of Boston. It was re-released with the title "Jingle Bells" two years later. It wasn't a hit either time.  There are debates on where and why this song was written.  The one I would like to believe is that he wrote it for his Sunday School class to perform during a Thanksgiving performance from his own life experiences as the YouTube video below points out, and he could have very well used it in his program by taking out one of the verses below. 

James Lord Pierpoint was born April 25, 1822 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father Rev. John Pierpont (1785-1866) was the Unitarian pastor of Hollis Street Church in Boston and a noted poet.  His mother was Mary Sheldon Lord the daughter of Lynde Lord, Jr. and Mary Lyman.

By the age of ten, Pierpoint was sent to a boarding school located in New Hampshire.  While there he wrote a letter to his mother in December about a sleigh ride in the snow. By the age of fourteen he ran away to sea aboard a ship called "the Shark."  He went back to the East Coast by 1845, where his father was the minister of a Unitarian congregation in Troy, New York.  There he meet his first wife, Millicent Cowee and they were married on September 4, 1846.  In 1849 Pierpoint left his wife and two children with his father in Massachusetts while he opened a business during the Gold Rush in San Francisco, CA.  Pierpont returned to Massachusetts as a result of a fire that caused his business to fail. 

In 1853 Pierpont's brother accepted a pastoral position in Savannah, Georgia, and he followed him taking a post as the music director and organist.  He again left his wife and children with his father.  To support himself, he gave singing and organ lessons.  In this same year Pierpont had his first songs published in Boston.  

In 1856 Pierpont's wife dies of tuberculosis and the children remain with their grandfather.  He remarries on September 24, 1857 to Eliza Jane Purse in Chatham, Georgia.  She is the daughter of Thomas Purse who is the mayor of Savannah, Georgia.     

The Unitarian Church in Savannah closed in 1859 and his brother returns to the North.  Pierpont stays with his second wife in Georgia.  He joined the Isle of Hope Volunteers of the First Georgia Cavalry of the Confederacy at the beginning of the Civil War.  Records indicate that he served as a company clerk. He also wrote music for the Confederacy, including "Our Battle Flag", "Strike for the South" and "We Conquer or Die." His father also saw military service — as a chaplain with the Union Army stationed in Washington, D.C.  After the war, he moved his family to Valdosta, Georgia, where he taught music and made many friends.

In 1869, Pierpont moved to Quitman, Florida. There he was organist in the Presbyterian Church, gave private piano lessons and taught at the Quitman Academy, retiring as the head of the Musical Department.  In 1880, Pierpont's son, Dr. Juriah Pierpont M.D., renewed the copyright on "Jingle Bells" but he never made much money from it.  It took considerable effort to keep his father's name permanently attached to the song after the copyright expired. 

Pierpont died in August 1893 in Winter Haven, Florida.  He was buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia beside his brother-in-law Thomas who had been killed in the first battle of Bull Run.

"Jingle Bells"  original lyrics

"Dashing thro’ the snow,

In a one-horse open sleigh,

O’er the hills we go,

Laughing all the way;

Bells on bob tail ring,

Making spirits bright,

Oh what sport to ride and sing

A sleighing song to night.

Jingle bells, Jingle bells,

Jingle all the way;

Oh! what joy it is to ride

In a one horse open sleigh.

Jingle bells, Jingle bells,

Jingle all the way;

Oh! what joy it is to ride

In a one horse open sleigh.

A day or two ago,

I thought I’d take a ride,

And soon Miss Fannie Bright

Was seated by my side,

The horse was lean and lank;

Misfortune seemed his lot,

He got into a drifted bank,

And we, we got upsot. 

A day or two ago,

The story I must tell

I went out on the snow

And on my back I fell;

A gent was riding by

In a one-horse open sleigh,

He laughed as there I sprawling lie,

But quickly drove away.

Now the ground is white

Go it while you’re young,

Take the girls to night

And sing this sleighing song;

Just get a bob tailed bay

Two forty as his speed.

Hitch him to an open sleigh

And crack, you’ll take the lead."

Published to YouTube on Dec 14, 2016 

by Andrea Scalia [Renaissance Music Project]

Updated video of this story, the original one was deleted from YouTube:

Published on YouTube on Nov. 2, 2009

by Ronald Clancy



Stories Concerning The Origin of "Jingle Bells:"

In short, both Massachusetts and Georgia claim ownership of "Jingle Bells." There are many stories circulating about its origin. Here’s a sampling.

Massachusetts: One day in 1851, James Pierpont went to the home of Mrs. Otis Waterman, who let him play a piano belonging to William Webber, a Medford music teacher. Mrs. Waterman owned the Seccomb boardinghouse, which became better known later as the Simpson Tavern and was eventually torn down [hence the origin of the story that Pierpont wrote the song in a tavern].

After he played the piece for her, Mrs. Waterman replied was that it was a very merry little jingle, and he should have a lot of success with it. Pierpont then wrote the lyrics about the one-horse open sleighs — also known as "cutters" — that young men raced on the one mile route from Medford to Malden Squares.

It has been said that Pierpont was a rebellious musician with a bad reputation. To underscore the point, Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn has been quoted as saying: "James Pierpont was a bit of a rogue." The Mayor evidently had a gift for the understatement.

Georgia: Savannah musical researcher, Milton Rahn, concluded that 'Jingle Bells' was most likely written in Savannah, in a house located near Oglethorpe and Whitaker Streets, which has since been torn down. It has been speculated that the song was composed by Pierpont, probably at a time when homesick, as he recalled his youthful days in New England.

Another popular version gives authorship (either in Boston or in Savannah) for a Thanksgiving church service. It is said that was so well received that the children were asked to repeat the performance at Christmas service and it has remained a Christmas standard ever since.
The popularity of the song, however, grew with the passage of time to the point where it became one of the most popular and recognizable songs of the Christmas holiday.


However it came about is unclear, but the one thing for certain is that through the years it's popularity has grown to the point where it is now one of the most recognizable songs during the Christmas Holidays, and oh what fun it is to sing.   By the 1890's to 1954 it was in the top 25 most recorded songs in history, beating out "My Old Kentucky Home", "The Stars and Stripes Forever", “Blue Skies”, “I Got Rhythm”, and “Georgia On My Mind”.  For the universal success of his composition, he was elected into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia established a 'James Lord Pierpont Music Scholarship Fund in 1997 in his honor. 



Pierpont's other compositions:

"The Returned Californian", 1852
"Kitty Crow", Ballad, 1853
"The Coquette, A Comic Song", 1853, with "Words by Miss C. B.". "The Coquet" was an arrangement for guitar by Pierpont of "The Coquette"
"The Colored Coquette", a minstrel song, 1853
"To the Loved Ones at Home", 1854
"Ring the Bell, Fanny", 1854
"Geraldine", 1854
*Poor Elsie", Ballad, 1854
"The Know Nothing Polka", 1854
"The Starlight Serenade", 1855
"To All I Love, 'Good Night'"
"I Mourn For My Old Cottage Home"
"Gentle Nettie Moore" or as "The Little White Cottage", 1857, Marshall S. Pike, lyrics, "Melody by G. S. P.", Chorus       and Piano Accompaniment by J. S. [sic] Pierpont"
"Wait, Lady, Wait"
"Quitman Town March"
"Our Battle Flag"
"We Conquer or Die", 1861
"Strike for the South", 1863
"Oh! Let Me Not Neglected Die!"

Sources links:
http://www.barnum.org/fam06463.htm
http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Biographies/james_lord_pierpont.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Pierpont_(musician)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjlO5uEweFQ