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Posts Tagged ‘Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr.’

“Jingle Bells” in the History of Space and Singable Picture Books

Posted by: Sing Books with Emily on: March 4, 2011

I love that “Jingle Bells” is a WINTER song. Lots of Christmas albums include a rendition of “Jingle Bells,” but this is a joyous song anybody and everybody can enjoy.

Being a busy mom, and magazine lover, I save up unread magazines (only my favorites, though) figuring that I’ll get to them at one time or another. Smithsonian Magazine is one of my favorites and I just discovered the September 2007 edition patiently waiting in a basket. It is filled with delights, but the smallest entry caught my eye: about Jingle Bell’s 150 year anniversary entitled “Dashing Ditty.” The small item says that the song was first published in 1857 (under the title “One Horse Open Sleigh”) and can claim over 1,500 recordings.

An interesting historical account of the song including biographical information about the songwriter James Pierpont, here:
http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/jinglebellssong.htm

Smithsonian Magazine maintains a terrific website with archived editions online. I went looking for “Dashing Ditty” and didn’t find it. But a search for “Jingle Bells” revealed a terrific article about the Gemini 6 space mission in December 1965 when, just before coming back to earth, Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford said the saw a space module piloted by a man wearing a red suit and followed that up with a rendition of “Jingle Bells” complete with harmonica and homemade jingles which they’d stowed at personal items for the trip. The items are on display at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum:

Read the article here:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Christmas_Cards.html

This Wikipedia article tells the story as well, including pictures and information about the whole Gemini mision:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_6A

One more Wikipedia article, about “Jingle Bells” which also includes pictures and relates the story of “Jingle Bells” as the first song sung in space:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_Bells

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“Jingle Bells” has been given some charming Singable Picture Books:

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Jingle Bells
Traditional Tune
Words Adapted by Iza Trapani
Illustrated by Iza Trapani

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Jingle Bells, A Pop-up Holiday Song
Traditional Tune
Poem excerpt by James Lord Pierpont
Illustrated by Eren Blanquet Unten

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Jingle Bells (Spin Me A Storybook)
Traditional Words and Tune
Published by Playmore Inc. (Hackensack, NJ)
ISBN 1-59060-592-6

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Jingle Bells (Golden Book)
Poem by James Lord Pierpont
Traditional Tune
Text by Kathleen N. Daly
Illustrated by J.P. Miller

Jingle Bells (Sing and Read Storybook)
Poem by James Lord Pierpont
Traditional Tune
Illustrated by Darcy May

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Jingle Bells
Poem by James Lord Pierpont
Traditional Tune
Illustrated by Michael Hague

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“Jingle Bells” is also included in many anthologies of Children’s Poetry.

Jingle Bells
Words and Music by James Pierpont

Dashing thro’ the snow,
In a one horse open sleigh,
O’er the hills we go,
Laughing all the way;
Bells on bob-tail ring,
Making spirits bright,
Oh what fun to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight.

Jingle bells, Jingle bells,
Jingle all the way;
Oh! what joy it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh.
(Repeat)

A day or two ago
I thought I take a ride
And soon Miss Fannie Bright
Was seated by my side,
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
He got into a drifted bank
And we, we got up-sot.

Jingle bells, Jingle bells,
Jingle all the way;
Oh! what joy it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh.
(Repeat)

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Some fun sing-along videos:

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeNJmOsBS94

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU9d79ho6dE

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgNSX5YzDSs
(I have always loved Barbra Streisand’s version)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a2u3b6-aak
(I also adore Andy William’s singing Kay Thompson’s fabulous Christmasy arrangement for “Jingle Bells”)

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Artist Nour Tohme created a DRAW ME A SONG poster:

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Jingle Bells (Draw Me a Song)
Draw Me a Song (Singable Posters)
Traditional Tune
Poem excerpt by James Lord Pierpont
Illustrated by Nour Tohme

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10\1\2011
JINGLE ‘BOT, NEW WORDS TO AN OLD SONG BY ELEG
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/jinlge-bot-new-words-by-eleg/

I was sitting ’round the kitchen with the kids and we were goofing off and these words came to mind. We thought they were funny. Maybe it would be fun to make a book for this sometime.

JINGLE ‘BOT
Traditional Tune (sing to the tune of “Jingle Bells”)
Words by Emily Leatha Everson Gleichenhaus

Dashing through deep space
In a polka dotted jet,
O’er the galaxy
Delivering pres-ents.
The robot has some gifts
For extra-terrestrials.
The speed of light
She flies tonight
To far away plan-ets.

Oh…

Jingle ‘bot, this robot
Jingles all the way.
Who’s good or bad,
It’s sure to say
On the digital display.

Jingle ‘bot, this robot
Jingles all the day.
She knows who’s nice
And who is not,
She’s Santa’s elf in space.

A day or two ago,
She thought she’d take a ride.
And soon space junk, not snow,
Was drifting by her side!
With her space arm long and lank,
She knew just what to do.
She grabbed the junk and off she flew
To Santa’s recycling bank!

Oh…

Jingle ‘bot, this robot
Jingles all the way.
Who’s good or bad,
It’s sure to say
On the digital display.

Jingle ‘bot, this robot
Jingles all the day.
She knows who’s nice
And who is not,
She’s Santa’s elf in space.

Now that space is clean
Go out and have some fun.
Hop in your space machine
And sing this robot song!
Just try and take the lead
Of our robot friend’s good deed,
Let’s keep space clear
For Santa’s deer [Alt.: "For Santa to Steer"]
To fly on Christmas Eve [Alt.: "His sleigh on Christmas Eve"]

Oh…

Jingle ‘bot, this robot
Jingles all the way.
Who’s good or bad,
It’s sure to say
On the digital display.

Jingle ‘bot, this robot
Jingles all the day.
She knows who’s nice
And who is not,
She’s Santa’s elf in space.

ALT 3rd Verse:
Now that space is clean
Go it while you’re young.
Hop in your space machine
And sing this robot song!
Be good and you’ll do great,
And go to bed at eight,
So Santa’s elves who stay up late
Can make more toys and celebrate!

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Important considerations that went into my new version of “Jingle Bells” (Yay!)

This new rendition of “Jingle Bells” takes place in space and “Jingle Bells” are thought to be the first musical instruments played in space, when the astronauts sang the song in space during the Gemini 6 mission in 1965 (see picture and article link above)
The song is about a FEMALE (males are far more often the central characters)
The female robot elf is presented with a problem which she solves because she knows just what to do repersenting girls who are intelligent, self assured, and independent
The female robot elf does the right thing!

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I just recently wrote a post about my new song “Jingle ‘Bot,” and this morning saw an item in the Style section of the Sunday NY Times (10/16/2011) about a woman who has an incredible collection of toy and folk art Robots.

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/collect-call-mary-ellen-mark-and-the-robots/?ref=fashion

This article is by Lynn Yaeger and is an installment in a series of articles about people and their collections.

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7/31/2012

Last year, I had a great time with my kids writing a new version of “Jingle Bells,” called “Jingle ‘Bot” about a robot in space whose polka-dotted ship picks up space junk. My son made a picture for the song at the time, which I just found in a pile of papers and of course it makes me want to SING!

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Addendum 12/2/2012

A page for the Sing Books with Emily SINGABLE ADVENT CALENDAR

“Jingle Bells,“ what fun is is to sing a sleighing song tonight…

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Jingle Bells
Poem by James Lord Pierpont
Traditional Tune
To view or print this SBWE Singable Advent Calendar page for “Jingle Bells,” click here:
SBWE Advent Calendar Jingle Bells

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POETRY SINGABLE POETRY IN COMPILATIONS
An list of singable poems from compilations of poetry for children
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/singable-poetry-a-list-of-poems-that-can-be-sung-from-illustrated-compilations-of-poetry-and-singable-picture-books/

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POETRY, SINGABLE POETRY IN INDIVIDUALLY ILLUSTRATED SINGABLE PICTURE BOOKS
A list of individually illustrated poems that have been set to music and can be sung
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/poems-individually-illustrated-spb/

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WINTER
Singable Picture Books for Winter
Some of these are sung at Christmastime, but this is a list of songs about Winter that you can sing all season long!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/singable-picture-books-for-winter/

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SING BOOKS WITH EMILY SINGABLE ADVENT CALENDAR
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/the-sing-books-with-emily-singable-advent-calendar/

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CHRISTMAS
A Collection of Singable Picture Books that celebrate CHRISTMAS!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/singable-picture-books-for-christmas/

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DRAW ME A SONG, SINGABLE POSTERS
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/draw-me-a-song-singable-posters/

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JINGLE ‘BOT, NEW WORDS TO AN OLD TUNE BY ELEG
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/jinlge-bot-new-words-by-eleg/