September 16th: The Day "Jingle Bells" was Copyrighted as "One Horse Open Sleigh"

Today the Christmas classic song Jingle Bells was originally copyrighted as One Horse Open Sleigh on September 16th 1857. Written by James Lord Pierpont in 1850, the festive tune completes any Christmas Carol service or anything Christmas-themed when you think about it! Although September seems an odd time of year to be writing about Christmas (despite the fact Christmas has already arrived in the shops), One Horse Open Sleigh was originally intended as a Thanksgiving celebration song. 

Jingle all the way...

   As the song grew and grew in popularity around the world, it became known as Jingle Bells, due to the phrase featuring so prominently in the chorus. The 'sleigh-ride' element mentioned in the lyrics has been linked to the town of Medford, Massachusetts' sleigh races of the 1800s, which was the hometown Pierpont the composer. Over the years, the likes of Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, The Beatles, Nat King Cole, The Sex Pistols, Pavarotti, NSync and many more have put their own celebratory spin on the simple melody (some better than others as you can imagine...). Did you know that the song was first sung and broadcast from space in 1965 by Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra?