Uploaded December 2010 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song, written by Kim Gannon, Walter Kent and Buck Ram. It was first copyrighted on August 24, 1943, by Kent (music) and James "Kim" Gannon (lyrics). The two revised and re-copyrighted their song on September 27, 1943, and it was this version that was made famous by Crosby. The label on Crosby's recording credits "I'll Be Home for Christmas" to Kent, Gannon, and Ram. Later recordings usually credit only Kent and Gannon. The discrepancy arose from the fact that on December 21, 1942 Buck Ram copyrighted a song titled "I'll Be Home for Christmas (Tho' Just in Memory)"—that song bore little or no resemblance, other than its title, to the Crosby recording. According to Ram, who was primarily a lyricist, he had written the lyrics as a 16-year-old, homesick college student. Prior to his publishers planned release, he had discussed the song with two acquaintances in a bar. He left a copy with them, but never spoke to them about it again. Both he and his publisher were shocked when the song was released by a competing publishing house. Per news articles of the day, Ram's publisher, who had been holding the song back a year because they were coming out with "White Christmas," sued Gannon and Kent's publisher and prevailed in court. On October 4, 1943, Crosby recorded "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra for Decca Records. Within about a month of Kent and Gannon's copyright the song hit the music charts and remained there for eleven weeks, peaking at number three. The following year, the song reached number nineteen on the charts. It touched a tender place in the hearts of Americans, both soldiers and civilians, who were then in the depths of World War II, 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 in both Europe and the Pacific and Yank, the GI magazine, said Crosby accomplished more for military morale than anyone else of that era.
I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
If only in my dreams
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song, written by Kim Gannon, Walter Kent and Buck Ram. It was first copyrighted on August 24, 1943, by Kent (music) and James "Kim" Gannon (lyrics). The two revised and re-copyrighted their song on September 27, 1943, and it was this version that was made famous by Crosby. The label on Crosby's recording credits "I'll Be Home for Christmas" to Kent, Gannon, and Ram. Later recordings usually credit only Kent and Gannon. The discrepancy arose from the fact that on December 21, 1942 Buck Ram copyrighted a song titled "I'll Be Home for Christmas (Tho' Just in Memory)"—that song bore little or no resemblance, other than its title, to the Crosby recording. According to Ram, who was primarily a lyricist, he had written the lyrics as a 16-year-old, homesick college student. Prior to his publishers planned release, he had discussed the song with two acquaintances in a bar. He left a copy with them, but never spoke to them about it again. Both he and his publisher were shocked when the song was released by a competing publishing house. Per news articles of the day, Ram's publisher, who had been holding the song back a year because they were coming out with "White Christmas," sued Gannon and Kent's publisher and prevailed in court. On October 4, 1943, Crosby recorded "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra for Decca Records. Within about a month of Kent and Gannon's copyright the song hit the music charts and remained there for eleven weeks, peaking at number three. The following year, the song reached number nineteen on the charts. It touched a tender place in the hearts of Americans, both soldiers and civilians, who were then in the depths of World War II, 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 in both Europe and the Pacific and Yank, the GI magazine, said Crosby accomplished more for military morale than anyone else of that era.
I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
If only in my dreams
![Fred Waring & The Pennsylvanians - The Meaning Of Christmas Medley [Album] (Capitol Records 1961)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ez0aZYbJung/mqdefault.jpg "Fred Waring & The Pennsylvanians - The Meaning Of Christmas Medley [Album] (Capitol Records 1961)
The Meaning Of Christmas Medley is a double sided album with the first side of the record consisting of choral settings of 13 familiar Christmas tunes strung together by Warings spoken reflections on the meaning of Christmas. Christmas means many things to many people, Waring intones in his introduction to the joyful Holiday. It means gifts, glamour, celebration, meditation, reunion, reminiscence, old friends...a time of great joy. The second side consists of only two tracks. The first is the Pennsylvanians jolly six-minute rendition of Twas the Night Before Christmas, which is probably the most famous musical adaptation ever recorded of that everlastingly popular holiday staple. The record concludes with The Song of Christmas, a 17-minute medley of sacred carols sequenced to tell the Biblical Christmas story. Let us not forget that to all men of goodwill who would pray for peace, Christmas means Christ, Waring suggests in an introduction tainted slightly by unintentional religious chauvinism. The record contains several charming performances, but among the highlights are the pretty Carol of the Bells and a snappy piano rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer that recalls Warings jazzy roots.
The Meaning of Christmas Medley was composed by Fred Waring, Boland, Frank Cunkle, Jerry Toti, Johnny Marks, Leo M. Tellep, Mark Lawrence, Moe Jaffe, Mykola Leontovych, Roy Ringwald, Sherman Feller, and Victor Herbert
Fredrick Malcolm Waring (June 9, 1900 – July 29, 1984) was a popular musician, bandleader, and radio-television personality, sometimes referred to as Americas Singing Master and The Man Who Taught America How to Sing. He was also a promoter, financial backer and eponym of the Waring Blendor, the first modern electric blender on the market.
Warings Pennsylvanians was a dance band that was founded at Penn State University by Fred Waring.
First named the Collegians, the group was formed in 1918 at Penn State by the brothers Fred and Tom Waring and their friends Freddy Buck and Poley McClintock. They had a hit in 1925 with the song Collegiate. Other popular novelty songs were Ive Never Seen a Straight Banana and I Wonder How I Look When Im Asleep.
In 1929 they appeared in the movie Syncopation and on stage in The New Yorkers the following year. Their popularity increased in the 1930s with their presence in radio and movies. During the 1940s, they performed on Broadway and at the Worlds Fair and became the first band to broadcast its own TV show. From 1950–1970, they became a corporation that branched into workshops, real estate, and a magazine.
From 1923 until late 1932, Warings Pennsylvanians were among Victor Records best-selling bands. In late 1932, Waring abruptly quit recording, although his band continued to perform on radio. In 1933, You Gotta Be a Football Hero was performed on radio to great acclaim. His 1930 recording of Love For Sale by Cole Porter is one of the only period versions of this popular song.
Adding a mens singing group to his ensemble, he recruited Robert Shaw, recently out of the Pomona College glee club, to train his singers. Shaw later founded the Robert Shaw Chorale and directed the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Pembroke Davenport (1911–85) was Warings pianist and arranger.
During World War II, Waring and his ensemble appeared at war bond rallies and entertained the troops at training camps. He composed and performed dozens of patriotic songs, his most famous being My America. In 1943, he acquired the Buckwood Inn in Shawnee on Delaware, Pennsylvania, and renamed the resort the Shawnee Inn. To promote the inn, he centered his musical activities at the inn itself. He created, rehearsed, and broadcast his radio programs from the stage of Shawnees Worthington Hall throughout the 1950s.
During the 1940s and early 1950s, Waring and His Pennsylvanians produced a string of hits, selling millions of records. A few of his many choral hits include Sleep, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Button Up Your Overcoat, White Christmas, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, and Dancing in the Dark.
The song, Breezin Along with the Breeze was used as a signature tune by Fred Waring")
