The Story Of Carols Podcast

The Story Of Carols Podcast

Christmas Carols, bring warmth, happiness to the season. But, do you know how most of them came into being? Well that’s what The Story of Carols will help you discover, and as we learned researching these tunes, the story is rarely what you’ll expect.

Episodes

December 5, 2021 6 mins

On the morning of January 8th, 1940 Irving Berlin, turned up at his Broadway publishing office. Without missing a beat he announced he’d written a song over the weekend. “Not only is it the best song I ever wrote,” he told Kresa. “It’s the best song anybody ever wrote.”

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at:

The Story Of Carols

 

Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From clas...

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The Nutcracker is the Olympics of ballet. Even people who actively dislike sport - watch the Olympics, and are be moved by the pageantry, dedication and physical skill. For the participants, it’s the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Exactly the same can be said for The Nutcracker.

But no one expected a children’s fairy tale to become the worlds best known ballet.

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We tend to think of “Good King Wenceslaus” as an Old English carol. But Wenceslaus, is an historic figure from first millennium Bohemia... what is now the Czech Republic. And he wasn’t a king - he was a Duke. His story though, has all the palace intrigue of a Shakespeare tragedy. 👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at:

The Story Of Carols

Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify...

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December 5, 2021 5 mins

The main motif of Carol of The Bells is only four notes, but Mykola Leontovych managed to get far more out of them than the sum of their parts. Considering the strife going on all around him, it’s amazing that he was able to write music at all.

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at:

The Story Of Carols

Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennial...

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December 1, 2021 4 mins

1945 was one of the hottest on summers on record. And that’s when the power of positive thinking produced one of the best loved Christmas songs of all time.

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at:

The Story Of Carols

Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennials to pop tunes, you get more than a hundred of the best Holiday tunes, and their most in...

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November 24, 2021 5 mins

George Gershwin never officially wrote a Christmas tune. But one of his little known, show tunes, “Snow Flakes,” is beginning to turn up as a carol in waiting.

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at:

The Story Of Carols

Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennials to pop tunes, you get more than a hundred of the best Holiday tunes, and their most...

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We’ve all heard of having a cup of wassail at Christmas time. We’ve even heard of wassailing as an event, - a celebration of merriment, as in “here we come a wassailing.” But did you know we still go a wassailing today?

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film versions of all our episodes at:

The Story Of Carols

 

Listen to The Story Of Carols Playlist on Spotify From classical to classics, perennials to pop tunes, you get...

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The Story Of Carols - "Silent Night, Holy Night"

A damaged pipe organ, a part time organist, and a forgotten poem all came together to create one of the best loved carols of all time.

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film version at:

The Story Of Carols

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Check Out Some Of Our Favorite Versions of Silent Night

Bing Crosby - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GUnfLPpjLs

Perry Como - https://www.youtube.com/wat...

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The Story Of Carols - A Civil War Christmas

It’s ironic that an act as divisive as the Civil War, would unify the way Americans celebrate Christmas. But, the holiday we know today largely came into existence in and around the war.

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film version at:

The Story Of Carols

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Check Out Some of Our Favorite Civil War Era Christmas Tunes

Up On The House Top - The Pentatonix https://www...

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The Story Of Carols - Rise Up Shepherd and Follow

A young woman working as a secretary, helped save more than a hundred African American Spirituals , and she did it all in the south, during the Civil War.

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film version at:

The Story Of Carols

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Check Out Some Of Our Favorite Versions of Rise Up Shepherd and Follow

Mary J Blige - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-nIx0z1iwc

Vane...

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The Story Of Carols - "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day"

Did you know that one of America’s most famous poets, wrote a Christmas Song - and made it to the top of the charts in the twenty-first century?

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film version at:

The Story Of Carols

 

Check Out Some Of Our Favorite Versions of I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

Casting Crowns - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7670CXvPX0

Bing...

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The Story Of Carols - "An Olde English Christmas"

We often don’t understand the lyrics to our favorite Christmas Songs. So we’ll look at the truth behind An Olde English Christmas.

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film version at:

The Story Of Carols

 

Check Out Some Of Our Favorite Versions of Olde English Christmas Tunes

Medley - Jim Holthouser - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrTyeNsLGSI

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen...

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November 26, 2020 4 mins
The Story Of Carols - "O Holy Night"

Today we think of "O Holy Night" as one of the most spiritual of all carols, but it was once banned by the church, and declared absent the spirit of religion.

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film version at:

The Story Of Carols

 

Check Out Some Of Our Favorite Versions of O Holy Night

Josh Groban - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zh-yR0pbmU

Jim Holthouser - https://www.youtube.com...

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The Story Of Carols - "Go Tell It On The Mountain"

The story of how "Go Tell It On The Mountain," saved an early African American University - and that university saved the song for us all.

 

👍 If you enjoyed this episode check out the film version at:

The Story Of Carols

 

Check out some of our favorite performances of Go Tell It On The Mountain

Mahailia Jackson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq5aEwtvdRI

Jim Holthouser - htt...

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