It’s always interesting to see what loves we carry forward that our parents gave us, and which we don’t share with them. My mother loved musicals; she grew up with the great musicals of 1950s and 1960s Hollywood (my father loved them too), and she passed that love on to me. So today we have three selections that come from musical films.
First, Bing Crosby. This is the version from the movie itself; I don’t think this is the recording that has gone on to become the greatest selling single of all time, but I could be wrong.
Now, this next one…I don’t have any idea of Mom ever saw Mame, or if she liked it if she did. Somehow it never came up. And this isn’t the film version of the song, either! I’m going with this one because, well, I like the stage version more than I do the film version. Here is Angela Lansbury.
And finally, we have this. I’ve made no secret over the years that I have very little room in my life or my heart for any version of this song beside this one, and I continue to be vexed by the lyric change that Frank Sinatra, as much as I love him, imposed on this song that has become the standard, even though for me that lyric change completely upends the meaning and emotion of the song. Enough of that, though: Mom loved Judy Garland, and that’s enough for today.
There were actually two recordings of White Christmas by Bing, in 1942 and 1947, because the first one got worn out from producing all of those records. Your version is neither of those.