Vintage Holiday Favorite Songs Get New Music Videos

When Bing Crosby first crooned “White Christmas” on his NBC radio show on Christmas Day 1941, it was 40 years before the launch of MTV in 1981. So it's hardly surprising that there's never been an official video for the singer's classic holiday tune.

Until now.

"White Christmas,” history's top-selling single with estimated sales exceeding 50 million copies worldwide, has resurfaced with its first-ever official music video. The Crosby chestnut is set to a heartwarming animated clip that depicts a forlorn soldier in a war overseas writing a Christmas card to his wife and daughter. The daughter grows up to enlist in military service and also is separated from her husband and child during the holidays. The story, dedicated to the men and women in the armed forces, happily ends with a tearful reunion. Crosby appears in the video sporting a purple fedora and also as the mailman.

The Irving Berlin composition, originally proposed but rejected for the 1935 Fred Astaire film Top Hat, was recorded by Crosby in 1942 and featured in his film Holiday Inn. His daughter Mary Crosby pronounced the new video “a wonderful tribute to his love and appreciation for the troops."

She said in a statement, “Dad believed supporting the troops was one of the most important contributions that he made in his life. When he was asked about his career, it wasn't his awards or the fame that came his way, it was that in some small way, if he made the life of a soldier a little bit easier then, that was what mattered."

The new video is the result of a partnership between Universal Music Enterprises and the estates of four late iconic singers who recorded treasured yuletide songs. Other animated videos that have been unveiled include Crosby's “Winter Wonderland,” Ella Fitzgerald's “Frosty the Snowman,” Chuck Berry's “Run Rudolph Run” and Frank Sinatra's “The Christmas Waltz” and “Mistletoe and Holly."

The six hand-drawn, hand-painted videos, created by Fantoons Animation Studios, are clever, uplifting and nostalgic. All are available on YouTube.

Here's a preview.

Bing Crosby, “Winter Wonderland”

This whimsical video finds the singer attempting to spread holiday cheer with a hot beverage cart. Crosby sets up his Bing-O-Matic machine in Bluesville, where snow is falling on the glum townsfolk. He attempts to entice them with free espresso, cocoa, eggnog and cider, but they frown and rush past. The mood lifts when he presses the emergency button, which summons dancing gingerbread man cookies and a winter wonderland of lights, decorated trees and fireworks.