The instrumental version of Jingle Bells by easy listening favourites Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass is another one of my favourite Christmas records. Herb Alpert & TJB have sold over 72 million records over the years. They are most famous for providing the theme tune the original movie version of Casino Royale and for their version of Spanish Flea. So much so that few realise that it was an existing song with lyrics and everything. This instrumental of Jingle Bells originally comes from their 1968 Christmas album called simply Christmas Album, the groups eleventh release. This was the groups first and only CD re-release in the 1980s. Nothing else was released on CD until 2006 along with a second re-release for Christmas Album. Jingle Bells was written by James Pierpoint in 1857 and is actually called One Horse Open Sleigh although it is now much more widely known by it’s adopted name.

The song also has three more little sung verses:

A day or two ago
I thought I’d take a ride
And soon, Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side,
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
He got into a drifted bank
And then we [And we—we] got upsot

Chorus

A day or two ago,
The story I must tell
I went out on the snow,
And on my back I fell;
A gent was riding by
In a one-horse open sleigh,
He laughed as there I sprawling lie,
But quickly drove away.

Chorus

Now the ground is white
Go it while you’re young,
Take the girls tonight
and sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bobtailed bay
Two forty as [for] his speed
[and] Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! you’ll take the lead.

Chorus

As you may have spotted none of that seems particularly Christmassey and that’s because Jingle Bells isn’t technically a Christmas song at all. It’s just about a sleigh ride in the snow. That said some would argue that any secular Christmas song isn’t technically a Christmas song either, but those people are no fun and most of the Christmas songs we all know and love (include almost all of the entries on Christmas Album) are secular songs anyway. Jingle Bells is synonymous with Christmas now anyway, as are the lyrics “Making Spirits Bright and “Jingle All The Way” that all originated in the song, so I say it gets a pass.