Jews Wrote Most Christmas Songs

Discussion in 'Music, TV, Movies & other Media' started by longknife, Dec 21, 2014.

  1. longknife

    longknife New Member

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    Did you know that?

    White Christmas. Let It Snow. Santa Baby. I'll Be Home for Christmas. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. Silver Bells. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

    My adopted father worked on Tin Pan Alley in the 20's and 30s so I've known this since I was a kid. Check out any of the composers. In fact, lots and lots of the most popular tunes in American musical history comes from Jews.

    But, who cares where they came from? Let's just sit back and enjoy them.

    Read the story @ http://ncronline.org/news/faith-par...nukkah-and-wrote-most-beloved-christmas-songs
     
  2. hoosier88

    hoosier88 Well-Known Member

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    Well, sure. Of course Jews were in the forefront in Show Biz. Where else did you expect them to go? They were barred from the professions, there were quota systems @ colleges & universities. They weren't much wanted in the military, & on & on. The only reason they got into banking & jewelry & related - what I recall from history - is that Gentiles back when weren't allowed to lend nor charge interest.

    Traditional Jewish culture - in Europe, in the US - emphasized Torah, letters, reasoning, reading & writing. There was a fair amount of acting too - @ least of social roles. Secret languages, secret writing systems, control of body language, demeanor, learning yet another national culture on the fly - Jewish culture/letters underlies the Bible, Show Biz, modern literature - & so it's perfectly natural that Jewish writers/actors/producers/directors & so on are all over TV, radio, scripts, movies, writing, literature. & of course the quota system is passé against the US Jewish population - they simply built up their own cultural capital in institutions.
     
  3. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Now that's America!
     
  4. longknife

    longknife New Member

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    And, if you bother to check out the headliners of the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, the vast majority were Jews with Anglicized names.

    Example - Joey Bishop. Joseph Abraham Gotlieb. His brother and family were my next door neighbors when I was a little kid and, because he used his real name I had no idea who he was until his brother came to visit.
     
  5. AlpinLuke

    AlpinLuke Well-Known Member

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    So what? Hollywood majors have been a Jewish matter for decades and many great movies which have remained historical are substantially a product of the Jewish influence. But they are great ... so, why should we mind about?
     
  6. longknife

    longknife New Member

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    There was not meant, in the slightest, to be any negativity about the OP.

    Metro, Goldwyn, and Mayer were Jews. Every great movie studio was founded by Jews. They dominated stage and screen for decades and have given us some truly beautiful and entertaining products.

    It just seemed a bit humorous to me that most of the songs we celebrate a Christian holiday with were written by Hebrews. :smile:
     
  7. Anders Hoveland

    Anders Hoveland Banned

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    I bet they wrote all the cheesy "new age" ones.

    But what about the old classics like Joy to the World and O Little Town of Bethlehem?

    Personally, I find all the newer Christmas songs a little obnoxious...
     
  8. Moi621

    Moi621 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Who do you suppose wrote this one ?

    [video]http://www.hulu.com/watch/1373[/video]


    Moi :oldman:
    Even if you only counted Irving Berlin . . .

    r > g


    No :flagcanada:
     
  9. longknife

    longknife New Member

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    Darlene Love - you can read about her @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlene_Love
     
  10. Mr_Truth

    Mr_Truth Well-Known Member

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    This does NOT surprise me in the least.

    Having grown up in Brooklyn, NY and knowing many Jewish scholars and socially conscience people, I have known many who greatly admire Jesus - they say he was what a real Jew is all about. Several of these scholars told me he is everything they aspire to be - people who love and serve people. That is why so many Hollywood Jews portray Jesus with heartfelt joy and why others have written great Christmas songs.



    By the way,


    A Happy & Wonderful New Year to everyone here! :smile:
     
  11. MaxxMurxx

    MaxxMurxx New Member

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    Could you rephrase the title of the topic into: Jews have written most of the 6 US American Christmas Songs, being known to myself?
     
  12. Gorn Captain

    Gorn Captain Banned

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    Slightly off-topic.....here's an interesting tid-bit...

    Many of the guys playing Germans, even Nazis, on "Hogan's Heroes"....were Jewish.

    Werner Klemperer "Klink" was Jewish. Leon Askin "Burkhalter" was Jewish. And Howard Caine who played the Gestapo agent "Hochstetter" was Jewish.

    Additionally many Jewish actors like Harold Gould and Harold J. Stone played German officers.

    Klemperer was asked about this once and said (paraphrased) "Who better than Jews to help mock Nazi Germany?"
     
  13. Battle3

    Battle3 Well-Known Member

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    And your point is.....?

    Jews can be Christians, and many are.

    And not all people of Jewish heritage practice Judaism, in which case the religious aspect of Christmas is irrelevant and like any businessman they are just supporting their customer base.
     
  14. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    And Robert Clary, who played Lebeau, was in a concentration camp
     
  15. longknife

    longknife New Member

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    Having grown up in Southern California with foster parents who had been in show business, both in NYC and in Hollywood, I have always known the great many Jews involved in show business. Who was the producer of the massively favorite epic film, The Ten Commandments? A Jew, of course [And it is/was a thousand more times accurate than that piece of crap just released]

    Name any famous and often awarded actor, actress, director, producer, musician, vocalist, comedian, etc., and one will learn they are Jews. One of my "aunts" had escaped Russia right after the October Revolution and met my mother while dancing as a Ziegfeld Girl. She was a trained ballerina and an awesome painter of pastels [I still have one of them]. She, and almost all of my "aunts" and "uncles" were Jewish entertainers,

    So, my point was simply to point out how big a role they played in keeping us smiling and happy during the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. :alcoholic:
     
  16. ThirdTerm

    ThirdTerm Well-Known Member

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    American Jews were tremendously active in music in the first half of the twentieth century. According to a study of American musicians published in 1933, at a time when Jews comprised less than 4% of the total United States population, 36% of the players in American "amusement orchestras" were Jews. And in the string sections, the numbers were twice as high! In the world of arts and entertainment, superior talent sometimes overcame racial prejudice. Consider this list, which highlights some of the songs by the great Jewish American composers and lyricists.

    [video=youtube;fOtOsLaYVJY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOtOsLaYVJY[/video]

    - 1823 John Payne (son of Sarah Isaacs) (lyricist), "Home Sweet Home."

    - 1840 Henry Russell, "The Old Arm Chair"

    - 1892 Charles K. Harris, "After the Ball is Over"

    - 1900 Harry von Tilzer, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage"

    - 1908 Albert Von Tilzer, "Take Me out to the Ball Game"

    - 1908 Nora Bayes, "Shine on Harvest Moon" (assisted by her husband Jack Norworth)

    - 1909 Gus Edwards, "By the Light of the Silvery Moon"

    - 1911 Harry von Tilzer, "I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad"

    - 1911 Irving Berlin, "Alexander's Ragtime Band"

    - 1918 Irving Berlin, "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" (from Yip Yip Yaphank)

    - 1919 George Gershwin, "Swanee"

    - 1922 Gus Kahn (lyricist), "Yes Sir That's My Baby"

    - 1924 George Gershwin, "Fascinatin' Rhythm," (from Lady Be Good)

    - 1924 George Gershwin, "The Man I Love" (from Lady Be Good)

    - 1925 Gus Kahn (lyricist), "Nothing Could be Finer Than to Be in Carolina in the Morning"

    - 1927 George Gershwin, Strike Up the Band

    - 1927 Jerome Kern, "Old Man River" from Showboat

    - 1930 George Gershwin, "Embraceable You" (from Girl Crazy)

    - 1930 George Gershwin, "I Got Rhythm" (from Girl Crazy)

    - 1935 George Gershwin, "It Ain't Necessarily So" from Porgy and Bess

    - 1935 George Gershwin, "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess

    - 1937 Mark Blitzstein, The Cradle Will Rock

    - 1938 Harold Arlen with lyricist Yip Harburg, "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz

    http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/2/Music/American_Jewish_Music/Songs_By_American_Jews.shtml
     
  17. longknife

    longknife New Member

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    Now that I downloaded Spotify, I've gathered literally more than a thousand songs. I am amazed at the number of artists or their works that were/are Jewish.

    Some truly awesome listening.
     
  18. Herkdriver

    Herkdriver New Member

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    "Silent Night” is by far the most recorded carol in America, with lyrics provided by an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and writer, Fr. Mohr.
     
  19. Moi621

    Moi621 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    http://www.interfaithfamily.com/arts_and_entertainment/popular_culture/The_Jews_Who_Wrote_Christmas_S ongs.shtml

    In short, a huge market for popular music developed in America after around 1880. No longer was a musician or composer's living dependent on a rich patron. If you were Irish Catholic, German Lutheran or Polish Jewish, you could enter into this field and if you wrote, or sang or played a song that the public liked, you could make a living. Sometimes a very good living.
    <edit>
    Therefore, the main reason that Jewish songwriters wrote and still write Christmas or holiday songs was and is commercial. A hit Christmas song means a lot of sales. Plus, a Christmas song always has a chance to become a "perennial," a song that generates royalties every year because the original recording or new versions of the song are bought by the public. (very smart)

    But I think it would be a mistake to say that an important part of the spirit of Christmas — "good will to all" — was not in the air as both American Jewish and American non-Jewish songwriters penned their popular holiday tunes. Given the opportunities Jewish songwriters found in America — and the horrors they left in Europe — they must have felt an openness towards the Christmas spirit that their Old World forebears didn't.

    The link gives a list with an exhaustive run down.
    How America invented "commercial" music as opposed to having a sponsor.

    Check out Ralph Bakshi "American Pop" [video]http://www.hulu.com/watch/113330[/video]
    Sort of a generational history of American music and Jewish involvement.


    Moi :oldman:

    r > g


    No :flagcanada:
     
  20. Phoebe Bump

    Phoebe Bump New Member

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    A large part of our Christmas shopping money also goes to Jews. You can't be a major retailer in this country without being Jewish any more than you can own a major Hollywood studio or be on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve.
     

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