:I'll Be Home for Christmas

The song is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during World War II, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells his family he will be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him, and requests snow, mistletoe, and presents "on" the tree. The song ends on a melancholy note, with the soldier saying, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams".{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MbCaYq9d9YcC&q=ill+be+home+for+christmas&pg=PT87 | title=Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas | access-date=December 8, 2011 | author=Collins, Ace| isbn=9780310873877 | date=May 4, 2010}} The flip side of the original recording (Decca 18570B) was "Danny Boy."{{Cite web |title=Decca 18570 (10-in. double-faced) - Discography of American Historical Recordings |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/317727/Decca_18570 |access-date=May 1, 2022 |website=adp.library.ucsb.edu}}

The song was written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent. Songwriter Buck Ram, known for his hits including "Only You", "The Great Pretender", "Twilight Time", and "The Magic Touch", wrote the original lyrics in 1922, while a student at the University of Illinois, as a poem for his mother. Kent and Gannon were acquaintances, and the three discussed the song during a chance meeting in a bar in 1941. A songwriter, producer and manager for groups that included The Platters, The Penguins, and The Flares, Ram was credited as a co-writer as a result of a lawsuit brought by his publisher, Mills Music.{{cite web|url=http://www.interfaithfamily.com/arts_and_entertainment/popular_culture/The_Jews_Who_Wrote_Christmas_Songs.shtml |title=The Jews Who Wrote Christmas Songs |website= InterfaithFamily.com|date=December 28, 2012}} Bing Crosby's original 1943 release of the song on Decca Records listed only Walter Kent and Kim Gannon as the songwriters on the record label. Later pressings added the name of Buck Ram to the songwriting credit.

On October 1, 1943, Crosby recorded the song under the title "I'll Be Home for Christmas (If Only in My Dreams)", with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra for Decca Records;{{cite web|title=A Bing Crosby Discography|url=http://www.bingmagazine.co.uk/bingmagazine/crosby1bDecca.html|website=BING magazine|publisher=International Club Crosby|access-date=August 6, 2017}} it was released as a 78 rpm single, Decca 18570A, Matrix #L3203, and reissued in 1946 as Decca 23779. Within a month of release, the song charted for 11 weeks, with a peak at number three. The next year, the song reached number 16 on the charts.{{cite book|last1=Whitburn|first1=Joel|title=Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890–1954|date=1986|publisher=Record Research Inc|location=Wisconsin, USA|isbn=0-89820-083-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/109 109]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/109}}

The U.S. War Department also released Bing Crosby's performance of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" from the December 7, 1944, Kraft Music Hall{{cite web|last1=Pairpoint|first1=Lionel|title=And Here's Bing!|url=http://www.bingmagazine.co.uk/bingmagazine/kmhtenth_season.htm|website=BING magazine|access-date=August 6, 2017}} broadcast with the Henderson Choir, J.S.T., on V-Disc, as U.S. Army V-Disc No. 441-B and U.S. Navy V-Disc No. 221B, Matrix #VP1253-D5TC206.{{cite web|title=A Bing Crosby Discography|url=http://www.bingmagazine.co.uk/bingmagazine/V-Discs.html|website=BING magazine|publisher=International Club Crosby|access-date=August 6, 2017}} The song from the broadcast has appeared in many Bing Crosby compilations.

In the midst of World War II, the song touched the hearts of Americans, both soldiers and civilians, and it earned Crosby his fifth gold record. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" became the most requested song at Christmas U.S.O. shows. The GI magazine Yank said Crosby "accomplished more for military morale than anyone else of that era".

[[File:Bing Crosby V Disc 441 Christmas.jpg|thumb|1945 V-Disc release

by the U.S. Army of "White Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" by Bing Crosby as No. 441B]]

Despite the song's popularity with Americans at the front and at home, in the UK, the BBC banned the song from broadcast, as the Corporation's management felt the lyrics might lower morale among British troops.{{cite web |url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/50178/11-reasons-bbc-has-banned-hit-songs |title=11 Reasons the BBC Has Banned Hit Songs |last1=Rodriguez McRobbie |first1=Linda |date=April 18, 2013 |website=Mental Floss |access-date=July 11, 2014}}

Seventy-seven years after its original release, Bing Crosby's "I'll Be Home for Christmas" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (at number 50 on the chart dated January 2, 2021).{{cite web|url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/2021-01-02|title=The Hot 100: The week of January 2, 2021|publisher=billboard.com|access-date=January 1, 2021}}

Elvis Presley recorded the song in September 1957, and was featured on the LP Elvis' Christmas Album.

Singer Johnny Mathis also covered the song on his Merry Christmas album in 1958, which was the No. 2 Christmas album of 1963 and 1964 as there were no Christmas album rankings prior to 1963. In December 1965, astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, while on Gemini 7, requested "I'll Be Home for Christmas" be played for them by the NASA ground crew.{{Cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200000010/ |title=I'll Be Home for Christmas |work=The Library of Congress |access-date=December 12, 2022 |language=en}} Since the incarnation of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1958, cover versions by Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello and American singers Kelly Clarkson and Josh Groban are the only versions of the song to enter the chart.

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Kelly Clarkson version

Michael Bublé version

Brian McKnight version

Pentatonix version

Seth MacFarlane version

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Josh Groban version

Reba McEntire version

Rascal Flatts version

Sara Evans version

Elvis Presley and Carrie Underwood version

Camila Cabello version

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{{Certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|title=I'll Be Home for Christmas|artist=Michael Buble|type=single|award=Silver|relyear=2004|certyear=2021|id=17719-1273-1}}

{{Certification Table Bottom | nosales=true | noshipments=true | streaming=true}}

{{reflist}}

• {{US government sources|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000010/default.html|title=I'll be home for Christmas [Song Collection]|agency=Library of Congress}}
• {{cite book|editor=Ewen, David|title= American popular songs from the Revolutionary War to the present|url=https://archive.org/details/americanpopular000ewen|url-access=registration|location= New York|publisher= Random House|date= 1966}} Call number: ML128 .N3 E9.
• {{cite book|author=Whitburn, Joel|title= Joel Whitburn's pop hits, 1940–1954: compiled from Billboard's pop singles charts 1940–1954|location= Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin|publisher= Record Research|date= 1994}} Call number: ML156.4 .P6 W495 1994.

{{Bing Crosby singles}}

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{{Camila Cabello}}{{The Carpenters}}{{authority control}}

Category:American Christmas songs

Category:Songs about soldiers

Category:Songs about the military

Category:1943 songs

Category:1943 singles

Category:Bing Crosby songs

Category:Songs of World War II

Category:Songs with lyrics by Kim Gannon

Category:Songs written by Buck Ram

Category:Decca Records singles

Category:Songs with music by Walter Kent

Category:Songs banned by the BBC