Could they have ever imaged that their music would be so popular on radio every year? That songs they recorded a half-century earlier would be heard every few hours on many #1 radio stations, decades after they were gone? I'm sure Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Karen Carpenter and Nat King Cole knew how popular they were so it might not surprise them to be heard multiple times a day on American radio. But Anderson, Guaraldi and Ives, not likely.
Ives had also been an actor, receiving a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1958, but he was no box-office heartthrob. He had a few minor hit records. He was hired to voice a role in a children's Christmas cartoon, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer." He sang that song and "Holly Jolly Christmas." The latter is usually in the top ten most played Christmas songs and his version of Rudolph is in rotation as well. Ives died in 1995.
Leroy Anderson wrote Sleigh Ride in 1946 while in the U.S. military. His instrumental version gets played most frequently on Christmas stations. Someone else wrote lyrics to Sleigh Ride in 1950. Versions by The Ronettes, The Carpenters, Air Supply and Johnny Mathis are frequently played on Christmas stations, maybe every 90 minutes or so. Anderson died of cancer at age 66 in 1975.
And Guaraldi had some fame in Jazz circles. TV Producer Lee Mendelson liked Guaraldi's jazz and made the unusual choice to have him play the music for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in 1965. The soundtrack sold 5 million copies and we hear "Linus and Lucy" on Christmas stations every few hours. Other songs from the half-hour TV special are also in rotation. Guaraldi died of a heart attack at age 47 in 1976.
Ives had also been an actor, receiving a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1958, but he was no box-office heartthrob. He had a few minor hit records. He was hired to voice a role in a children's Christmas cartoon, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer." He sang that song and "Holly Jolly Christmas." The latter is usually in the top ten most played Christmas songs and his version of Rudolph is in rotation as well. Ives died in 1995.
Leroy Anderson wrote Sleigh Ride in 1946 while in the U.S. military. His instrumental version gets played most frequently on Christmas stations. Someone else wrote lyrics to Sleigh Ride in 1950. Versions by The Ronettes, The Carpenters, Air Supply and Johnny Mathis are frequently played on Christmas stations, maybe every 90 minutes or so. Anderson died of cancer at age 66 in 1975.
And Guaraldi had some fame in Jazz circles. TV Producer Lee Mendelson liked Guaraldi's jazz and made the unusual choice to have him play the music for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in 1965. The soundtrack sold 5 million copies and we hear "Linus and Lucy" on Christmas stations every few hours. Other songs from the half-hour TV special are also in rotation. Guaraldi died of a heart attack at age 47 in 1976.
