Benjamin Hanby - Up on the Housetop

Описание: This Xmas song has been recorded by a multitude of singers, most notably Gene Autry in 1953. According to William Studwell in The Christmas Carol Reader, Up on the Housetop was the 2nd-oldest secular Xmas song, outdone only by Jingle Bells, which was written 7y earlier in 1857. It's also considered the 1st Yuletide song to focus primarily on Santa Claus. It was originally published in the magazine Our Song Birds by Root & Cady. According to Reader's Digest Merry Christmas Song Book, Hanby probably owes the idea that Santa and his sleigh land on the roofs of homes to Clement C. Moore's 1822 poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas (aka The Night Before Christmas). Benjamin Russell Hanby was born in 1833 near Rushville, Ohio, the son of a minister involved with the Underground Railroad. He wrote Up on the Housetop while living in New Paris, Ohio. During his short life, he wrote some 80 songs before dying of tuberculosis in 1867. Other than Up on the Housetop, his best-known song is Darling Nelly Gray. In 2005, the song was repopularized with a new recording by Kimberley Locke. The recording broke a Billboard record when it made the largest leap into the Top 5 in the AC chart's history, moving from 32 to 5 in only a week. It was also the 2nd longest Billboard holiday AC chart topper in the chart's history, sitting at #1 for 4 consecutive weeks.

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