Song of the Day 12/21: The Drifters, “White Christmas”

Did you know that there was one version of this song — out of the more than 500 that have been recorded — that angered composer Irving Berlin so much he waged a campaign to get it banned from radio stations? No, it wasn’t this one, which was a hit for the original Drifters in 1954. Maybe Berlin appreciated the way Clyde McPhatter saved his high tenor and let bass Bill Pinckney handle the verse the first time around. It reached new heights of popularity after it was used in the soundtrack of “Home Alone” and I now hear it as often as Bing Crosby’s version, the best-selling single in history (an estimated 50 million).

There’s no record of Berlin passing judgment on the Drifters’ version. But when Elvis Presley used a similar arrangement on his 1957 Christmas album — imaginatively titled “Elvis’ Christmas Album” — Berlin went through the roof. I don’t think he minded the doo-wop arrangement, just the performance. Berlin considered it a parody of what was already a beloved standard — it had charted every December since its release in 1942 — and ordered his staff to call radio stations across the country to demand they ban the record. Most stations ignored him, but listening to Presley’s oddly mannered delivery, you can sort of hear Berlin’s point.