“Let It Snow!” – the Christmas song that isn’t

On December 22, 1945, a new 78 RPM record by the popular singer and big band leader Vaughn Monroe entered the Billboard “Best Sellers in Stores” chart (a precursor of Billboard’s Top 40 and Hot 100 charts).  

It was the first recording of the song “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”

The words were written by the highly successful lyricist Sammy Cahn. The music was by Cahn’s songwriting partner at the time, Jule Styne.

Monroe’s version of the song quickly became a huge hit, making it to Billboard’s number one spot on January 26, 1946.

In the decades since then, “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” has been recorded by countless other singers and bands. It’s generally thought of as a standard Christmas song. And, the phrase “Let It Snow” is common on Christmas cards.

However, there’s actually no reference to Christmas or the holiday season in the song’s lyrics.

It’s really a romantic love song about a guy who’s visiting his girlfriend in some unnamed northern location. When it’s time to leave, the weather “is frightful.” It’s snowing too hard for safe travel.

So the lovers snuggle up by the delightful fire, pop some popcorn and enjoy being snowed in. As far as the guy is concerned, it’s a fortuitous situation and he’s happy to “let it snow.” 

In the excellent, well-researched book Stories Behind the Greatest Hits of Christmas, author Ace Collins notes that when Cahn and Styne wrote the song they were sitting in a stifling hot office in Hollywood in the summer of 1945.

Styne worked out a melody he thought sounded “cool” on the piano. Cahn turned his thoughts to winter. “Looking out the window at the California sun baking the landscape, he whispered, ‘Let it snow.’”

In a short time, Cahn and Styne finished what is now considered one of the top 25 Christmas songs — even though it’s not really about Christmas.

Although you may not be old enough to have heard Vaughn Monroe’s original version when it first entered the Billboard chart on December 22, 1945, you probably have heard it.

Monroe’s recording of “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” is the first song that plays during the end credits of the Bruce Willis movie Die Hard. It was also used in the soundtrack of Die Hard II.

So, yippee-kay-yay, folks. Click on the video link at right and sing along! Here are the lyrics...

“Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we’ve no place to go
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

It doesn’t show signs of stopping
And I brought some corn for popping
The lights are turned way down low
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

When we finally kiss good night
How I hate going out in the storm
But if you really you hold me tight
All the way home I’ll be warm.

The fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, we’re still good-bye-ing
But as long as you love me so
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!”

(NOTE: If you’re interested in early music charts used prior to Billboard’s Top 40 and Hot 100, buy yourself Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954 for Christmas.)

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Learn more about the origins of famous Christmas songs…

“Out Where the West Begins”

On an early December night in 1911, journalist Arthur Chapman was trying to come up with a topic for his regular column in the Denver Republican newspaper, called “Center Shots.”

As he was thinking, he saw an Associated Press dispatch about an ongoing disagreement between the Governors of several Western states.

They were arguing over which state should be considered the state where “the West” begins.

The AP story gave Chapman a flash of inspiration. He sometimes wrote cowboy-style poems for his column and, in a matter of minutes, he wrote one on the topic the Governors were debating.

He titled it “Out Where the West Begins.”

On December 3, 1911 the poem was published for the first time in Chapman’s column in the Denver Republican. It was soon reprinted in other newspapers across the country.

Over the next five years, “Out Where the West Begins” became one of best known bits of verse in America.

In 1917, musician Estelle Philleo wrote music for the poem and turned it into a popular song. That same year, it was published in a book collecting Chapman’s poetry, Out Where the West Begins and Other Western Verses.

“Out Where the West Begins” made Chapman famous and is still renowned as one of the greatest examples of cowboy poetry.

Here’s how he answered the question of where “the West” begins in his poem:

       “Out where the handclasp’s a little stronger,
       Out where the smile dwells a little longer,
             That’s where the West begins;
       Out where the sun is a little brighter,
       Where the snows that fall are a trifle whiter;
       Where the bonds of home are a wee bit tighter;
             That’s where the West begins.
       Out where the skies are a trifle bluer,
       Out where the friendship’s a little truer,
             That’s where the West begins
       Out where a fresher breeze is blowing, 
       Where there’s laughter in every streamlet flowing,
       Where there’s more of reaping and less of sowing,
             That’s where the West begins.
       Out where the world is in the making,
       Where fewer hearts with despair are aching;
             That’s where the West begins;
       Where there’s more of singing and less of sighing,
       Where there’s more of giving and less of buying,
       And where a man makes friends without half trying,
             That’s where the West begins.”

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Comments? Corrections? Post them on the Famous Quotations Facebook group.

Further reading and listening about Cowboy – and Cowgirl – poetry…