Merry Christmas!
Country singers have included Christmas songs in their repertoire throughout the history of country music. Vernon Dalhart and Fiddlin’ John Carson and others recorded Christmas songs in the 1920s, and in the case of Dalhart, even earlier. Be sure to check out Vernon Dalhart’s 1917 record, “Star of Bethlehem.” The country charts began in the mid 1940s, so let’s take a quick look at a few Christmas songs that impacted the first few years of country charts.
In 1945, Tex Ritter had a #2 country hit with “Christmas Carols by the Old Corral.”
In 1947-8, Gene Autry had a #4 country hit with a song he wrote, “Here Comes Santa Claus.” In 1949, Autry had a #1 country hit with “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and in 1950, a #4 country hit with “Frosty the Snow Man.”
In 1949, Ernest Tubb had a #1 country hit with “Blue Christmas” and a #7 country hit with “White Christmas.”
In 1949, Eddy Arnold had a #7 country hit with a song he co-wrote, “C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S.” He also had a #12 country hit in 1954 with “Christmas Can’t Be Far Away.”
In 1949, Homer and Jethro with June Carter had a #9 country hit with a funny version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
The late 1950s produced such Christmas hits by country stars as “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” though both of those were even bigger hits on the pop charts than the country charts.
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