Jingle Bell Rock
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

"Jingle Bell Rock" is an American
Christmas song Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...
first released by
Bobby Helms Robert Lee Helms (August 15, 1933 – June 19, 1997) was an American country singer and musician. In 1957, he had a perennial Christmas hit with "Jingle Bell Rock", and two other hits that same year: " Fraulein" and "My Special Angel". Life an ...
in 1957. It has received frequent airplay in the United States during every
Christmas season The Christmas season or the festive season, also known as the holiday season or the holidays, is an annual period generally spanning from November or December to early January. Incorporating Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the various celebrat ...
since then, and is generally considered Helms'
signature song A signature (; from , "to sign") is a depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. Signatures are often, but not always, handwritten or styliz ...
. "Jingle Bell Rock" was composed by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe, although both Helms and session guitarist on the song
Hank Garland Walter Louis Garland (November 11, 1930 – December 27, 2004), known professionally as Hank Garland, was an American guitarist and songwriter. He started as a country musician, played rock and roll as it became popular in the 1950s, and release ...
disputed this (see Authorship controversy section below). Beal was a
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
-born
public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...
professional and longtime resident of South Ocean Avenue in
Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city (New Jersey), city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of ...
, and Boothe was an American writer in the advertising business.


Helms recordings

"Jingle Bell Rock" has been performed by many, but Helms' first version from 1957 produced by Paul Cohen is arguably the best known. The song's title and some of its lyrics are an extension of the old Christmas standard, "
Jingle Bells "Jingle Bells" is one of the most commonly sung Christmas songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont. It is an unsettled question where and when Pierpont originally composed the song that would become known as "Jingle Bells". It ...
". It makes brief references to other popular songs of the 1950s, such as "
Rock Around the Clock "Rock Around the Clock" is a rock and roll song in the 12-bar blues format written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was reco ...
", and mentions going to a "Jingle hop".
Hank Garland Walter Louis Garland (November 11, 1930 – December 27, 2004), known professionally as Hank Garland, was an American guitarist and songwriter. He started as a country musician, played rock and roll as it became popular in the 1950s, and release ...
plays guitar on the recording. Backup singers were the
Anita Kerr Singers Anita Jean Kerr (''née'' Grilli; October 13, 1927 – October 10, 2022) was an American singer, arranger, composer, conductor, pianist, and music producer. She recorded and performed with her vocal harmony groups in Nashville, Los Angeles, and ...
. Helms' original version, on
Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...
9-30513 from October 1957, was re-recorded by him on Kapp K-719 in 1965, and yet again in 1967 on Little Darlin' LD-0038. In 1970, Helms recorded an entire album titled ''Jingle Bell Rock'' on Certron C-7013, releasing the title track on Certron C-10021, with a picture sleeve. In yet another re-recording, Helms released a version on Ashley AS-4200 (1971). He again recorded the song for Gusto Records, it was subsequently released on their "Power Pak" label. In 1983, Helms released his last recording of "Jingle Bell Rock" on Black Rose 82713. ''
D-TV ''D-TV'' is a music video television series produced by Charles Braverman and edited by Ted Herrmann. Premiering on May 5, 1984 on the Disney Channel, the series combined both classic and contemporary popular music with various footage of vintag ...
'' set this version to the
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
shorts, ''Once Upon a Wintertime'' from ''
Melody Time ''Melody Time'' is a 1948 American live-action and animated musical anthology film produced by Walt Disney. It was released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on May 27, 1948. Made up of seven segments set to popular music and folk music, the f ...
'' and '' On Ice''.


Personnel

*
Bobby Helms Robert Lee Helms (August 15, 1933 – June 19, 1997) was an American country singer and musician. In 1957, he had a perennial Christmas hit with "Jingle Bell Rock", and two other hits that same year: " Fraulein" and "My Special Angel". Life an ...
– vocals, guitar * Henry Ade – steel guitar *
Hank Garland Walter Louis Garland (November 11, 1930 – December 27, 2004), known professionally as Hank Garland, was an American guitarist and songwriter. He started as a country musician, played rock and roll as it became popular in the 1950s, and release ...
– guitar *
Anita Kerr Singers Anita Jean Kerr (''née'' Grilli; October 13, 1927 – October 10, 2022) was an American singer, arranger, composer, conductor, pianist, and music producer. She recorded and performed with her vocal harmony groups in Nashville, Los Angeles, and ...
– backing vocals


Brenda Lee recording

Brenda Lee Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944), known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Primarily performing rockabilly, pop, country and Christmas music, she achieved her first ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' hit aged 12 i ...
recorded the song on June 23, 1964, for her album ''
Merry Christmas from Brenda Lee ''Merry Christmas from Brenda Lee'' is an album by Brenda Lee and was released in 1964 by Decca Records. in 1999, the album was rereleased on MCA Nashville, expanded to 18 tracks, and retitled ''Rockin’ around the Christmas tree: the Decca Chr ...
'' on the Decca label. It was released on October 19, 1964. The album reached No. 7 on the Billboard charts with the song "
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958; it has since been recorded by numerous other music artists. By the song's 50th anniversary in 2008, Lee's original version had ...
" reaching No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 in 2023. Lee's recording of "Jingle Bell Rock" has charted every year on the Billboard Top 100 since 2019.


Cover versions

Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, producer, and businesswoman. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at age three. She appeared as a regular on the soap opera ' ...
covered the song in 2022 for her
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
film ''
Falling for Christmas ''Falling for Christmas'' is a 2022 American Christmas romantic comedy film starring Lindsay Lohan as a spoiled heiress who loses her memory in a skiing accident and lands in the care of a lodge owner widower at Christmastime. The film is directe ...
'' as a nod to her performance of the track in 2004's teen comedy ''
Mean Girls ''Mean Girls'' is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. It stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, and Fey. The film follows Cady Heron (Lohan), a naïve t ...
''.
The Vivienne James Lee Williams (12 April 1992 – 5 January 2025), known professionally as The Vivienne, was a British drag queen from Colwyn Bay, Wales, and winner of the RuPaul's Drag Race UK series 1, first series of ''RuPaul's Drag Race UK'' in 2019. T ...
and
Tia Kofi Lawrence John Bolton, better known by the stage name Tia Kofi, is a British drag queen and singer from Clapham, South London. They are best known for competing on the second series of '' RuPaul's Drag Race UK'' (2021), and winning the second se ...
covered the song in 2021.


Authorship controversy

Helms, as well as session guitarist on the song Hank Garland, both claimed until their deaths, that it was they, not Beal and Boothe, who wrote the song. They claimed that the original song by Beal and Boothe was called ''Jingle Bell Hop'', and that it was given to Helms by a Decca executive to record. According to Helms and Garland, that song had little to no resemblance to the current one. Helms did not like it and, as a result, they both proceeded to work on it, changing the music, lyrics and tempo, and also giving it a previously missing bridge. The new song, they claimed, was the one that is known today. However, neither of them received writing credit or subsequent writing royalties. Billy Garland, brother of Hank Garland, maintains his deceased brother's story, and has long been involved with and vocal about the issue.


Chart and sales performance

The original version of Helms charted at No. 13 on ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''s Most Played C&W by Jockeys chart, a predecessor to the
Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...
chart. It also crossed to the pop charts, peaking at No. 6 on the ''Billboard'' Best Sellers in Stores chart, and at No. 11 on '' Cashbox'' magazine's Top 60 on the week ending January 11, 1958. After the song was featured on the soundtrack album to the 1996 film '' Jingle All the Way'', the original Bobby Helms version returned to the ''Billboard'' country singles charts in late 1996 and early 1997, reaching a peak of No. 60. The Helms version entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart on the week ending January 9, 2016, which was the song's first entry on the chart since its last appearance on the week ending December 29, 1962. On the week ending January 7, 2017, "Jingle Bell Rock" hit at number 29. In January 2019, the song entered the Hot 100's top 10 for the first time reaching No. 8. With this feat, Helms broke the record for the longest wait to the Hot 100's top 10 as he achieved this in 60 years, four months, and two weeks after his first entry back in 1958. Helms' recording reached a new peak of No. 3 on the chart dated January 4, 2020. According to
Nielsen SoundScan Luminate Data, LLC (formerly MRC Data and P-MRC Data) is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) and Variety Business Intellige ...
, the digital track of Helms' original Decca recording was ninth on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles in SoundScan history in 2016 with 780,000 downloads. As of December 2019, it has sold 891,000 copies in the United States. Recently, the track was performed by artists like
Brenda Lee Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944), known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Primarily performing rockabilly, pop, country and Christmas music, she achieved her first ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' hit aged 12 i ...
and
Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as a pop icon and an influential figure in popular music, Grande is known for her four-octave vocal range, which extends into the whistle re ...
.


Bobby Helms


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Brenda Lee


George Strait


Aaron Tippin


Rascal Flatts


Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert


Various artists version


Hall & Oates version

Hall & Oates Daryl Hall & John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, were an American Rock music, rock duo formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1970. Daryl Hall was generally the lead vocalist, while John Oates primarily supplied electric guitar and ba ...
and their band released a version in 1983 as a non-album single which peaked at number 30 on the Hot 100 Recurrents chart in 2005; it also reached number 6 on the ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'''s Holiday Airplay chart on December 13, 2008, and number 24 on the
Hot Holiday Songs ''Billboard'' magazine only charted Christmas singles and albums along with the other popular non-holiday records until the 1958 holiday season when they published their first section that surveys only Christmas music. An increase of Christm ...
chart on December 10, 2011. There are two video versions: one with
Daryl Hall Daryl Franklin Hohl (born October 11, 1946), known professionally as Daryl Hall, is an American rock, R&B, and soul singer. He is best known as the co-founder and principal lead vocalist of Hall & Oates, with guitarist and songwriter John Oa ...
and another with
John Oates John William Oates (born April 7, 1948) is an American musician, best known as half of the rock and soul duo Hall & Oates along with Daryl Hall. He has played rock, R&B, and soul music, serving as a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record ...
singing lead. Both versions feature G. E. Smith as a grandma, playing the guitar with gloves.


Weekly charts


Certifications


Max Bygraves UK version

Max Bygraves Walter William "Max" Bygraves (16 October 1922 – 31 August 2012) was an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, sometimes performing comedy sketches between songs. He made twenty ''Roya ...
released a version in 1959 with the Eric Rogers Orchestra which peaked at number 7 in the UK Top 30, released on Decca: F11176


Chubby Checker & Bobby Rydell version

Chubby Checker Chubby Checker (born Ernest Evans; October 3, 1941) is an American singer and dancer. He is widely known for popularizing many dance styles, including the Twist, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard & The Midnighters' R&B song " The Twis ...
&
Bobby Rydell Robert Louis Ridarelli (April 26, 1942 – April 5, 2022), known by the stage name Bobby Rydell (), was an American singer and actor who mainly performed rock and roll and traditional pop music. In the early 1960s, he was considered a teen idol. ...
recorded and released a version on their album '' Bobby Rydell/Chubby Checker''. In 1961 it reached No. 21 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart, No. 3 in Canada, and No. 40 on the UK Singles Chart. It was issued on Cameo Parkway C205.


Certifications


Bobby Helms version


Hall & Oates version


References


External links

* {{authority control Songs about rock music 1957 songs 1964 songs 1967 songs Bobby Helms songs Bill Haley songs Brenda Lee songs Aaron Tippin songs Bobby Rydell songs George Strait songs Hall & Oates songs American Christmas songs Decca Records singles