Old chestnuts keep on roasting.
Guess whose Christmas album outsold Mariah Carey and Michael Buble? Also Phil Spector and Nat King Cole?
Hint: he made movies with Bob Hope and played a priest in a famous holiday film.
The answer is redacted but I’ll give it you anyway: Bing Crosby.
Da Bingster.
True! Taylor Swift was number 1 on Friday blah blah blah.
But number 2 was Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas with 115K copies sold — mostly streaming equivalent.
Mariah was number 6 with 77K sold — also mostly streaming.
Bing died in 1977 which is like almost 50 years ago. But his fans were listening to him sing “White Christmas” more than ever.
“White Christmas” for decades held the record for most bought single. The song was written by the great Irving Berlin, who was Jewish, btw.
Coming in third was Michael Buble, followed by Nat King Cole, and Phil Spector.
After Mariah, a strong seventh place was held by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, with A Charlie Brown Christmas. Amazing!
There are 28 songs on Ultimate Bing Crosby but he didn’t write any of them. He doesn’t get publishing royalties. But maybe his daughter, Mary, who killed JR Ewing (don’t ask), will get a cut of sales.
Yes, Bing played a priest in the classic “Bells of St. Mary’s” in 1945. In 1954, he starred in “White Christmas” and sang that infernal song!
But his best movies were with Bob Hope. Look ’em up. They’re classics and fresh as daisies.
