<P> "White Christmas" is a 1942 Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old - fashioned Christmas setting . The version sung by Bing Crosby is the world's best - selling single with estimated sales in excess of 100 million copies worldwide . Other versions of the song, along with Crosby's, have sold over 150 million copies . </P> <P> Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song . One story is that he wrote it in 1940, in warm La Quinta, California, while staying at the La Quinta Hotel, a frequent Hollywood retreat also favored by writer - director - producer Frank Capra, although the Arizona Biltmore also claims the song was written there . He often stayed up all night writing--he told his secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song . I just wrote the best song I've ever written--heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!" </P> <P> The first public performance of the song was by Bing Crosby, on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941; a copy of the recording from the radio program is owned by Crosby's estate and was loaned to CBS News Sunday Morning for their December 25, 2011, program . He subsequently recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and Chorus and the Ken Darby Singers and for Decca Records in just 18 minutes on May 29, 1942, and it was released on July 30 as part of an album of six 78 - rpm discs from the musical film Holiday Inn . At first, Crosby did not see anything special about the song . He just said "I don't think we have any problems with that one, Irving ." The song established and solidified the fact that there could be commercially successful secular Christmas songs--in this case, written by a Jewish - American songwriter, who also wrote "God Bless America ." </P> <P> The song initially performed poorly and was overshadowed by Holiday Inn's first hit song: "Be Careful, It's My Heart". By the end of October 1942, "White Christmas" topped the Your Hit Parade chart . It remained in that position until well into the new year . It has often been noted that the mix of melancholy--"just like the ones I used to know"--with comforting images of home--"where the treetops glisten"--resonated especially strongly with listeners during World War II . A few weeks after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Crosby introduced "White Christmas" on a Christmas Day broadcast . The Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for the song . The recording is noted for Crosby's whistling during the second chorus . </P>

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