Saturday Scenes

On the 29th of May 1942 Bing Crosby recorded the Irving Berlin song “White Christmas” which was to become the best-selling Christmas single in history.

White Christmas

What’s so strange in all of this, as Rosen rightly points out, is that the now-deleted first stanza of the song endows the tune with the stuff of satire, not longing:

The sun is shining.
The grass is green.
The orange and palm trees sway.
There’s never been such a day
In Beverly Hills, L.A.
But it’s December the twenty-fourth,
And I’m longing to be up north.

Rather than the lungful paean we’ve come to love (or hate), the verse satirizes Hollywood. It was planned as a first-act show-stopper for Holiday Inn, and, “was, in its inventor’s initial conception, something else entirely: wry, parodic, lighthearted – a novelty tune.”

It was Berlin himself who ordered the stanza cut from all future sheet music in 1942 after hearing the power of the song in Crosby’s unmistakable croon and watching “White Christmas” rocket up the charts a full four months before Christmas.

On the 29th of May 2010, it was equally not white and not Christmas and in many places the sun was not even shining. Even so, these photographs are sure to bring a smile to your face.

If you are thinking about who to follow on Twitter, I can highly recommend each and every one of these wonderful SatSceners:

• Dramagirl
• RAFairman
• DaughterofLir
• sparc
• fluttabyz
• sahfenn
• tradingnothing
• robdavies
• capo42
• akrabat
• raumsinn
• mousewords
• JanetIsserlis
• drewbenn
• pixelfreund
• CliffStanford
• twasntme
• timewind
• APGPhoto
• ElshaHawk
• akaSylvia
• pendrift
• rOcKeTmAn_76

Would you like to show your corner of the world? It’s easy to take part!

1. Take a photo on a Saturday and upload it to the photo site of your choice.
2. Twitter the url for your photograph to @SatScenes.
3. Watch for the next post on Saturday Scenes to see your photo here!

The photo must be taken on a Saturday but you don’t need to let me know until Tuesday (although as soon as possible is always nice) when I collate them all. Join in!