Things you didn't know about Elvis' BLUE CHRISTMAS! ! Behind the Christmas Hits

The signature part of a classic Elvis song was just supposed to be a joke.  It’s time to go Behind the Christmas Hits: Blue Christmas.
 
Blue Christmas is NOT an Elvis original.  

The lyrics were written by Jay Johnson, who was working on a Christmas music radio show in the late 1940’s.  

 Billy Hayes wrote the melody and it was first recorded by country singer, TV host and actor Doye O’Dell in 1948.  
 
Several other versions were recorded over the next few years, including one by Ernest Tubb that went to #1 in 1950.  

But you almost NEVER hear any of these any more…and that’s because of Elvis. Millie Kirkham was one of the back-up singers for the recording session with Elvis – she sings the “wooo-wee-wooo” part of the song.  In an interview with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2012, Millie said Elvis never wanted to record Blue Christmas.  

When producers told him it was on the schedule and he had to do it, Elvis turned to the musicians and said “let’s get this over with – just do anything, do something silly.”  And that’s when Millie started to go “wooo-wee-wooo” and did it throughout the entire song.  At the end of the recording session, they all laughed.
 
Elvis recorded Blue Christmas in 1957 to be included on the simply titled “Elvis’ Christmas Album.”  Fans loved it, but it wasn’t available as a single for another 7 years.  When the single was released in December 1964, it went to #1 on Billboard’s Christmas Singles Chart and would be re-released every year for the rest of Elvis’ career. 

It was such a big hit, that the songwriters, Johnson & Hayes, estimated they generated more royalties in the first year of Elvis’ version than they had in all of the other versions in nine years combined.  
 
The song’s popularity was the reason why Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, went to NBC in May of 1968 to pitch a TV special.  At the time, there hadn’t been any TV specials focused on a single performer – they always featured multiple artists – so the idea that this would focus on just one was something people hadn’t seen before.  Parker’s idea: have Elvis sing nothing but Christmas songs.  NBC went for it and the special was on the production schedule for that June.
 
Now…the special didn’t go exactly as Parker pitched it.  Director Steve Binder and producer Bones Howe decided the special should tell more of Elvis’ life story through the lyrics of his other songs.  But the special was going to air in December and Parker continued to insist that Elvis do a Christmas song…and he did.  In fact, he did two:  I’ll Be Home for Christmas and Blue Christmas.  But I’ll Be Home for Christmas was cut and never aired.  Blue Christmas made the cut  and the audience loved it.  People were shown crying during the performance and even grunting along while Elvis was singing the song.  (0:32-0:34 from video)
 
Elvis recorded many different Christmas songs in his career, but his performance of Blue Christmas for his 1968 “comeback” TV special is the only video footage that exists of Elvis singing ANY Christmas song.  It recently placed 7th in Rolling Stone’s Reader’s Poll of the Best Christmas Songs of All Time.
 
One final note: Blue Christmas also has special meaning for another legendary artist.  It’s the last song Bruce Springsteen ever performed with the Big Man, Clarence Clemons.  In December of 2010, to promote The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story, the E Street Band played a set at the historic Carousel House on the boardwalk of Asbury Park, New Jersey.  They performed several songs from Darkness but ended the night with a version of Blue Christmas.  Clemons died 6 months later without ever playing with Bruce again.