"
Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known
[1] and most commonly sung
[2] American songs in the world. It was written by
James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "
The One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857. It has been claimed that it was originally written to be sung by a
Sunday school choir for
Thanksgiving, or as a drinking song.
[3] Although it has no original connection to
Christmas,
[4] it became associated with winter and
Christmas music in the 1860s and 1870s, and it was featured in a variety of
parlor song and college anthologies in the 1880s.
[5] It was first recorded in 1889 on an
Edison cylinder; this recording, believed to be the first Christmas record, is lost, but an 1898 recording also from Edison Records survives.
[6]
