(It also would have helped if they had kept notes from the session.) Helms, as the biggest new hit maker for Decca, and Garland, as the hottest session guitarist around, had enough clout at the time to raise hell about it. There were plenty of witnesses around when they were hacking away at this tune in the studio. If Helms and Garland had better understood how intellectual property worked-and had good lawyers-they could have made an immediate claim on their authorship of JBR. One business lesson from this stands out: Pay attention to IP. His recording credits included Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie” and “Bye Bye Love,” Roy Orbison's “Pretty Woman,” and many hits by Elvis Presley and Patsy Cline. He earned a good wage from his session work in the 50s, but a 1961 car accident left him partially paralyzed, ending his career. Hank Garland died in 2004, still claiming he and Helms were owed millions from JBR songwriting royalties. Bad business decisions kept him from returning to his glory days. He never received songwriting royalties from “Jingle Bell Rock” but he did receive royalties as the recording artist for the song. In the years that followed, Bobby Helms never reached the top of the charts again, though he continued to perform until his passing in 1997. (NB: changes to an arrangement of a song don’t customarily affect ownership, but changes to the substance of the song-melody, chords, lyrics-do.) The phrase “jingle hop” in the first verse of the song was probably left over from the first song, but that alone would not be sufficient for Beal and Boothe to claim authorship.
But six decades later we can’t say for certain whether the song was substantially “revised” or completely rewritten.
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Nevertheless, the authors of the original song, Joe Beal and Jim Boothe, got full credit for the new version and made a fortune off it.Īt the very least, Helms and Garland should have been granted co-writer credit, given the new melody, verses, bridge, and lyrics. The two of them considered it “a whole new song” and recorded their creation, “Jingle Bell Rock,” that night. “It wasn’t any good,” Garland recalled years later, explaining how he and Helms took a meat cleaver to the tune-changing the words and adding a bridge and new verses. At that time, Decca’s A&R man Paul Cohen convinced Helms to record a song titled “Jingle Bell Hop." Helms and his session guitar-player, Hank “Sugarfoot” Garland, tried to make this new song work, but just couldn’t. In late 1957 singer Bobby Helms was riding high with two back-to-back #1 country hits, “Fraulein” and “ My Special Angel,” which both charted on the Pop Top 40 as well. Unfortunately, there’s a business tale behind the song that’s not so cheery. And since 1957 this two-minute-and-twelve-second classic has been the standard bearer for holiday cheer. It’s as elegantly and tightly constructed as a Swiss watch, with no superfluous parts. I can hear your objections already: it’s FLUFF! Yup, but it’s fluff that’s superbly recorded, brilliantly arranged, and magnificently performed. It’s still considered the first rock & roll Christmas song-because this is what rock sounded like in its early years. Given its rockabilly feel (and its Andrews-Sisters-like background singing), it swings more than rocks, but that’s ok.
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It’s been getting steady play every December for 56 years now and has worked its way into dozens of Christmas ads, TV shows, and movies. The chords interpretation is the result of my individual work.At this time of year there’s one traditional holiday pop-rock song that reigns supreme. Authors can request their removal at any time. 159 of allows its use only for didactic, study and research activities. The lyrics and chords of the songs contained on the site are property of their respective authors. Guitar chords and lyrics of Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms