I've been holding off with the Christmas music on the blog, at least trying to hold out until December 1 when all bets are off.
However, today, taking Sammi to school, picking her up, and back again, we heard four different versions of Sleigh Ride, two of them back to back, on the radio.
I wondered, if you lined up every recording of Sleigh Ride, how long would it take to listen to them all (*assuming you could without going mad) without a repeat?
Now, the blog is not called Wandering for nothing. I do tend to get a crazy thought and follow it windingly until I find something else sparkly to catch my attention.
So, I looked it up.
There are 101 recorded versions, the first coming in 1949, the high point in 1959 with five different artists releasing a version, and the most recent in 2010, which begs the question, where are the 2011 Christmas albums?
Assuming an average playing time of 3.58 (from my small sample of 8 versions, the shortest being Bing's version at 2:44 to the longest award going to Al Caiola's Sleigh Ride jazz medley at 6:17), that's 363.58 minutes of Sleigh Ride, or just over 6 hours of listening to hear them all.
ASCAP named it the most played Christmas song of 2010, despite it never mentioning the holiday once in its lyrics, exceptions being where the artist changes "birthday party" in the bridge to "Christmas party." Heathens.
annnndddd.... how did I not know Chicago recorded a version?
Make that 9 versions of Sleigh Ride in the iTunes library ;)
However, today, taking Sammi to school, picking her up, and back again, we heard four different versions of Sleigh Ride, two of them back to back, on the radio.
I wondered, if you lined up every recording of Sleigh Ride, how long would it take to listen to them all (*assuming you could without going mad) without a repeat?
Now, the blog is not called Wandering for nothing. I do tend to get a crazy thought and follow it windingly until I find something else sparkly to catch my attention.
So, I looked it up.
There are 101 recorded versions, the first coming in 1949, the high point in 1959 with five different artists releasing a version, and the most recent in 2010, which begs the question, where are the 2011 Christmas albums?
Assuming an average playing time of 3.58 (from my small sample of 8 versions, the shortest being Bing's version at 2:44 to the longest award going to Al Caiola's Sleigh Ride jazz medley at 6:17), that's 363.58 minutes of Sleigh Ride, or just over 6 hours of listening to hear them all.
ASCAP named it the most played Christmas song of 2010, despite it never mentioning the holiday once in its lyrics, exceptions being where the artist changes "birthday party" in the bridge to "Christmas party." Heathens.
annnndddd.... how did I not know Chicago recorded a version?
Make that 9 versions of Sleigh Ride in the iTunes library ;)
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