Advent Calendar Day 4: I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas

minden

Mindnyájan fehér karácsonyról álmodunk. De honnan is származik a hires karácsonyi dal? A leckéből kiderül, és a dalt a videó segítségével akár meg is tanulhatod.

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the treetops glisten and children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the treetops glisten and children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,

Just like the ones I used to know

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

And may all your Christmases be white (all your Christmases be white)

And may all your Christmases be white (all your Christmases be white)

And may all your Christmases be

(All your Christmases be white)

(All your Christmases be white)

 

“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 50 million copies worldwide. Other versions of the song, along with Crosby’s, have sold over 50 million copies.

Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. One story is that he wrote it in 1940, in La Quinta, California, while staying at the La Quinta Hotel. 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!”

The first public performance of the song was by Bing Crosby, on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941. 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 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.

Although Crosby dismissed his role in the song’s success, saying later that “a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully,” he was associated with it for the rest of his career.

What rhymes with what? Fill in the rhymes.

1. know – ……

2. glisten – ……

3. white – ……

Key

1. know – snow

2. glisten – listen

3. white – bright – write

Vocabulary

I used to know

amit régebben ismertem

treetop

facsúcs

to glisten

csillogni

sleigh bell

száncsengő

Christmas card

karácsonyi üdvözlőlap

merry

vidám

bright

fényes

to reminisce

emlékezni, emlékeken merengeni

single

kislemez

estimated sales

becsült eladás

in excess of

több mint

accounts vary

a vélemények/beszámolók eltérnek

grab your pen

fogja meg a tollát

to take down

leírni

initially

kezdetben

to perform

teljesíteni

poorly

gyengén

to overshadow

háttérbe szorítani, elhomályosítani

comforting

vigasztaló

to resonate with

egybecsengeni, lelki húrokat pengetni

to dismiss his role

lekicsinyíteni a szerepét

jackdaw

csóka

cleft palate

szájpadhasadék, farkastorok

Kapcsolódó anyagok