Dec. 14, 2025
The Greatest Christmas Songs of All-time - "Blue Christmas" - Elvis Presley
Welcome back to Hitmaker Chronicles! I'm your host, Garrett Fisher. This week on our eight-week Christmas countdown, we explore Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" - the holiday standard he didn't want to record. We'll trace how a commuter train daydream became Ernest Tubb's country hit, why a 22-year-old Elvis told his musicians to "just do something silly," and how those iconic "woo" vocals almost didn't make the final cut. It's a story about reluctant genius, September sessions with Christmas trees, and how the King turned his least favorite recording into a performance that redefined holiday heartbreak.
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WEBVTT
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Caalaroga Shark Media. I'm Garrett Fischer And in September nineteen
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fifty seven, Elvis Presley was recording Christmas music in Hollywood,
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and he absolutely did not want to be there. He
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was twenty two years old and at the peak of
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his early fame. He'd revolutionize popular music in less than
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two years Heartbreak, Hotel, Hound Dog, Don't Be Cruel, All
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shook up. He'd racked up number ones that changed the
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sound of American radio. He was dangerous, sexy, controversial. Parents
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hated him, teenagers worshiped him. Ed Sullivan had famously filmed
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him only from the waist up, and now RCA wanted
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him to make a Christmas album. To help set the
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mood for the September sessions at radio recorders in Hollywood,
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RCA executive Steve Schulz had set up a fully decorated
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Christmas trees in the studio, complete with presence underneath. Scotty Moore,
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Elvis's guitar player, later recalled everyone laughing about playing Christmas
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songs in Los Angeles in the middle of summer, but
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they were professionals. They'd cut eight of the album's twelve
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tracks over three days September fifth through seventh. Most of
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the songs were standards. Elvis could approach his way White Christmas,
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but using the drifters R and b arrangement, not bing
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Crosby's crooner version. Santa Claus Is Back in Town, written
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on the spot by Jerry Lieber and Mike Staller in
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a matter of minutes. When Elvis asked for something with edge.
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Those songs worked for him. They fit what Elvis Presley
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was about. But Blue Christmas was different. It was a
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country ballad originally a hit for Ernest Tubb in nineteen fifty, and,
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according to Millie Kirkham, the backing vocalist, who was six
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months pregnant and had been flown in specifically for these sessions,
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Elvis made his feelings abundantly clear. He didn't want to
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do it. Kirkhimer called. He said, I don't want to
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do this song, and they said, well, you've got to,
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because it's already been scheduled. And so he said, well, okay,
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and he turned around to us, the musicians and the singers,
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and said, let's just get this over with. To understand
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why Elvis resisted, we need to go back to where
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Blue Christmas came from because the song's journey to Elvis
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started nine years earlier. On a commuter train heading into
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New York City. Jay Johnson was writing from his home
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in Stamford, Connecticut, to Manhattan. He was a radio writer,
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scripts and jingles, the kind of work that kept you
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employed but didn't necessarily make you famous. It was nineteen
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forty eight and White Christmas by Bing Crosby was still
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dominating the holiday season five years after its release. Johnson
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started thinking about the flip side of that coin. White
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Christmas was about longing for home, for the familiar comforts
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of childhood Christmases. But what if you were longing for
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a person? What if Christmas wasn't white and magical, what
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if it was blue and lonely. He took the idea
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to his composer friend Billy Hayes. Together they finished Blue Christmas,
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a simple melancholic ballad about missing someone during the holidays.
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The clever wordplay was built in, I'll have a blue
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Christmas without you. Decorations of red on a green Christmas
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tree won't be the same, Deer if you're not here
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with me. Taking all those holiday colors, the festive reds
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and greens, and turning them blue. Depression, loneliness, heartache, all
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wrapped up in Christmas imagery. The song was published by
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Choice Music Company. The first recording came from Doy O'Dell
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in nineteen forty eight, a Western music pioneer and actor
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who specialized in cowboy songs. His version didn't do much commercially,
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but it established the song's existence. In nineteen forty nine,
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three major artists recorded it simultaneously. Hugo Winterhalter's orchestra version
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reached number nine on the charts. Russ Morgan and his
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orchestra hit number eleven. But the version that really mattered
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came from Ernest Tubb. Tub was country music royalty by
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nineteen fifty. Walking the Floor over You had made him
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a star. In nineteen forty one, he was a member
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of the Grand Ole Opry. He'd opened the Ernest Tub
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record shop on Broadway in Nashville and started the Midnight
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Jamboree radio show, both of which are still operating today.
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He had credibility and influence. His version of Blue Christmas
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spent the first week of January nineteen fifty at number
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one on the country charts. It returned to the top
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ten in nineteen fifty one and nineteen fifty two. Tubb's
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recording had an extra verse that later versions would drop,
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I'll have a blue Christmas. I know, Dear, I hope
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your white Christmas brings you cheer. It was pure country,
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weeper material, pedal, steel guitar, Tubb's distinctive vocal style, the
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whole package. And here's where the story gets inter. A
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young Elvis Presley met Ernest Tubb when Elvis was just
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starting out. Tubb gave him advice about the music business,
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about navigating Nashville and the country music establishment. It was
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the kind of mentorship moment that meant something to an
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ambitious kid from Memphis. So when RCA scheduled Blew Christmas
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for Elvis's Christmas album in nineteen fifty seven, Elvis knew
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exactly what he was being asked to cover. Ernest Tubb's
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song country music sad Christmas ballad. Everything Elvis was trying
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to move away from. Elvis had come from country music.
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His early Sun record sessions blended country, blues and gospel
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into something new, But by nineteen fifty seven he transcended
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those roots. He was creating rock and roll. He was
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redefining American Popular music recording Ernest Tubb's Country Weeper felt
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like a step backward, but RCA wanted a Christmas album
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and Blue Christmas was already scheduled. So Elvis showed up
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to radio recorders with his usual crew Scotty Moore on guitar,
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Bill Black on bass, DJ Fontana on drums, and the
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Jordanaires providing backing vocals, along with Millie Kirkham for the
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soprano parts, and Elvis, clearly frustrated, told everyone to just
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have fun with it, do something silly. Let's get this
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over with. That decision, that moment of resignation mixed with playfulness,
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created one of the most iconic holiday recordings of all time.
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Let's talk about what makes Elvis' version work, because it's
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not just a straight cover of Ernest Tubb, it's something
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entirely different. First, Elvis cut one of Tubb's verses, tightening
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the song. Where Tubb's version had this extended country storytelling quality,
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Elvis made it more immediate, more direct. Second, the arrangement
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this isn't pure rock and roll. Elvis keeps some of
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that country feeling, the gentle guitar work, the restrained rhythm section,
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but he adds his vocal style, which by nineteen fifty
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seven had become one of the most distinctive sounds in
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popular music. That slightly nasal quality, the way he bends notes,
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the subtle vibrato. He's not belting it like Jerry Lee
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Lewis would. He's being intimate, vulnerable even. Third, and most importantly,
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Millie Kirkham's vocal contributions. When Elvis told the musicians to
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do something silly, Kirkham started adding these WU backing vocals
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throughout the song, not words, just WU high ethereal, almost ghostly.
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Elvis immediately encouraged her to keep going. She did it
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throughout the entire track. When they finished, Kirkham later said
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we all laughed and said, well, that's one record that
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the record company will never release because those WU vocals
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seemed absurd, too playful, not serious enough for a legitimate recording.
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But here's the genius. Those wu's transformed the song. They
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add levity to heartbreak. They're simultaneously mournful and tongue in cheek.
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They prevent the song from becoming too maudlin, too much
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of a country weeper. They give it personality, character, a
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sense of Elvis's own attitude toward the material. There's also
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a musical inside joke happening that most listeners miss. The
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backing vocalists, especially Kirkham's soprano line, deliberately use what musicians
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call blue notes. They replace major and minor thirds with
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neutral and septimal minor thirds. It's a musical pun on
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the word blue in the title to Trained Ears. It's
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an easter egg, a little wink embedded in the arrangement.
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The recording session wrapped. Elvis's Christmas album was released on
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October fifteenth, nineteen fifty seven. It went to number one
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on the Billboard Album charts, displacing the Around the World
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in Eighty Days soundtrack. It was the first rock and
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roll Christmas album to top the charts. But Blue Christmas
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wasn't released as a single, not in nineteen fifty seven,
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not in nineteen fifty eight, not for years. It was
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just a track on the album. RCA apparently shared Millie
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Kirkham's concern that those woo vocals were too silly for
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a serious release. The album was huge regardless. It contained
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Santa claus Is Back in Town, which had real rock
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and roll attitude. It had Elvis's take on White Christmas.
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It had gospel tracks recorded earlier in the year. It
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was Elvis doing Christmas his way, and audiences loved it.
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Blue Christmas became a favorite album track, but it wasn't
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until nineteen sixty four, seven years after recording that RCA
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finally released it as a single. The B side was
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Wooden Heart from the Gi Blues soundtrack. It charted in
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the UK, reaching number eleven, but Elvis still hadn't performed
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it publicly. The recording existed. People knew it, but there
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was no performance footage, no live version, just that nineteen
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fifty seven studio recording with those silly woo vocals that
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Elvis had reluctantly recorded on a September day in Hollywood.
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Then came nineteen sixty eight. Elvis's career was in a
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weird place. He'd spent most of the sixties making movies,
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lots of movies, mostly forgettable ones. His music had become safe,
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formulaic soundtrack Botterer, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones had
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taken over rock and roll. Elvis seemed like a relic,
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a fifty star past his prime. At thirty three years old,
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NBC offered him a television special. It was sponsored by
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Singer Sewing Machines, so it was officially called Singer Pre
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Sense Elvis, though everyone would eventually call it the sixty
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eight Comeback Special. The idea was simple, put Elvis on stage,
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let him perform, remind America why he mattered. The special
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was recorded in June nineteen sixty eight and aired on
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December third. It became one of the defining moments of
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Elvis's career. Raw powerful electric performances that proved he still
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had it, the leather clad segments, the small stage intimate performances,
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the full production numbers. It revitalized everything. And in the
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middle of all that, Elvis performed Blue Christmas for the
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first time publicly. Before singing it, he introduced it by saying,
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I'd like to do my favorite Christmas song of all
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the ones I've recorded, which is remarkable, right. The song
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he didn't want to record in nineteen fifty seven, the
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one he told musicians to just get over with, had
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become his favorite by nineteen sixty eight. Something had changed
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in those lieven years. Maybe it was perspective. Maybe by
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nineteen sixty eight, after years of mediocre movies and soundtrack albums,
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Elvis had gained appreciation for that moment of spontaneity in
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the studio, for those silly woo vocals that captured something genuine.
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Maybe he'd come to understand what made the recording special.
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Or maybe, and this is speculation, but it feels right,
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maybe Elvis had come to understand the song's actual emotional content.
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At twenty two, recording it in nineteen fifty seven, he
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was at the peak of his powers, invincible, surrounded by success.
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By thirty three in nineteen sixty eight, he'd experience loss, disappointment,
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the feeling of being left behind, that loneliness at Christmas,
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that sense of things not being the same. Maybe it
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resonated differently. Whatever the reason, that sixty eight Comeback Special
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Performance is the only video footage that exists of Elvis
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singing a crisp Christmas song, and he delivers Blue Christmas
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with genuine feeling, with that same vulnerability from the original recording,
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but now with understanding behind it. The song took on
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a life of its own after that. It became a
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Christmas standard, played constantly during the holiday season. Dean Martin's
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version from nineteen sixty six became another popular rendition, The
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Beach Boys covered it, Johnny Cash, Brenda Lee, Willie Nelson,
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countless others. It appeared in movies and TV shows, the
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rankin Bass special The Year Without a Santa Claus in
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nineteen seventy four, various film soundtracks, Verizon commercials, the TV
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show Glee. In two thousand and seven, Martina McBride recorded
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a duet with his vocal track. It became part of
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the Christmas Duets album, featuring female vocalists singing alongside Elvis's
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original recordings. That version hit the Adult Contemporary charts, Elvis's
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first time on the chart since nineteen eighty two, and
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then in twenty nineteen, something remarkable happened. Blue Christmas re
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entered the Billboard Hot one hundred at number forty sixty,
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two years after it was recorded. It had been streamed
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over twenty one point three million times in one week
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in the United States. It was Elvis's first time back
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on the Hot one hundred since nineteen seventy seven. Think
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about that trajectory. A song written on a commuter train
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in nineteen forty eight, A country hit for Ernest Tubb
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in nineteen fifty reluctantly recorded by Elvis in nineteen fifty
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seven with instructions to just do something silly. Not released
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as a single for seven years, first performed publicly in
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nineteen sixty eight and charting again in twenty nineteen, a
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genuine hit in the streaming era. What made Elvis's version
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endure when so many other Christmas songs disappeared. Part of
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it is simply Elvis's cultural permanence. He's one of the
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handful of artists whose work transcends generations. But there's something
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specific about this recording. It's the vulnerability combined with playfulness,
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the melancholy balanced with those absurd woos, the tension between
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the song's country roots and Elvis's rock and roll identity,
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the way he sings it, not overdoing the emotion, letting
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the lyrics carry the weight while his vocal adds character.
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It's also the relatability of the emotion. Christmas songs are
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often about joy, celebration, family togetherness, but not everyone feels
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that way during the holidays. For people who are alone,
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who've lost someone, who are separated from loved ones, Blue
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Christmas speaks directly to that experience. It validates sadness without
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being depressing. It acknowledges that Christmas can be complicated, and
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those woo vocals the thing Millie Kirkham thought would keep
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the record from being released. They're essential to why it works.
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They prevent the song from being too heavy. They add
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a lightness, almost a self awareness, that makes the sadness
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more bearable. It's okay to feel blue at Christmas, the
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