Jingle Bells

Yeah yeah, I know. Silly song, nothing to it, right? Well, listen to this instrumental arrangement by Roy Clark, the extraordinary guitarist who died last year.

The song was written by James Lord Pierpont and first published in 1857. Oddly, it was originally intended as a Thanksgiving song, but it evolved. The historians theorize that “jingle” was meant initially as a verb: shake or rattle the reins on the sleigh in order to make its presence known to other sleigh-drivers.