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"Jingle Bells", originally "One Horse Open Sleigh" is one of the best known and commonly sung secular Christmas songs in the world. It was written in 1857 by James Pierpont (18221893) to be sung at a Thanksgiving program at his church in Boston, and was repeated at Christmas due to its instant popularity.
As Christmas is not only a religious feast, but also a secular winter festival, songs such as "Jingle Bells" and "Frosty the Snowman" are as popular as Christmas carols.
The song does not mention Christmas. The first verse and chorus are the most often sung (and remembered) parts of "Jingle Bells":
- Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh,
- O'er the fields we go, laughing all the way.
- Bells on bob-tails ring, making spirits bright,
- What fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight.
- Jingle bells, jingle bells,
- Jingle all the way!
- O what fun it is to ride
- In a one-horse open sleigh.
Although less well known than the opening, the remaining verses depict high-speed youthful fun. In the second verse the narrator takes a ride with a girl and loses control of the sleigh:
- A day or two ago
- I thought I'd take a ride
- And soon Miss Fanny Bright
- Was seated by my side
- The horse was lean and lank
- Misfortune seemed his lot
- We ran into a drifted bank
- And there we got upsot
In the next verse he upsets the sleigh again and a rival laughs at him:
- 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 at me as I there lay
- But quickly drove away
In the final verse, he picks up some girls, times a horse, bets on it, and then takes off at full speed:
- Now the ground is white
- Go it while you're young
- Take the girls along
- and sing this sleighing song
- Just bet a bobtailed bay
- Two forty as his speed
- Hitch him to an open sleigh and crack!
- You'll take the lead
In spirit – "Go it while you're young" – the song anticipates the themes of songs about girls and cars of a century later like Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" or the Beach Boys' "Fun Fun Fun".
Parodies
Like many simple, catchy, and popular melodies, "Jingle Bells" is often the subject of parody.
Numerous parodies start out with the line,
- Jingle bells, shotgun shells
Another version that has long been common among elementary school children throughout the English-speaking world, is of unknown origin.
- Jingle bells, Batman smells,
- Robin laid an egg,
- the Batmobile lost a wheel
- and the Joker got away.
An "instrumental" version of Jingle Bells, heard every year by the Singing Dogs, has the melody rendered by means of dog barks for each note. It was put together by a Danish recorder of bird songs who had removed the barks from his bird tapes.
- Ruff, ruff, ruff
- Ruff, ruff, ruff
- Ruff, ruff, woof, woof, ruff
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