"Jingle Bell Rock"

No personal notes.

Written by Joe Beal (1900-1967), a Massachusetts-born public relations man, and Jim Boothe (1917-1976), a Texas writer in the advertising business.

It has been performed by many (e.g. "The Mean Girls", but Bobbie Helms' version (1957) is the best-known. Its title and some of its lyrics are takeoffs on the old Christmas standard, "Jingle Bells". It also makes brief references to other popular songs of the 1950s, such as "Rock Around the Clock", and mentions going to a "Jingle hop". An electric guitar played by Hank Garland can be heard playing the first notes to the chorus from the aforementioned "Jingle Bells".

Despite being titled a Jingle Bell "Rock", Helms' version of the song was performed in the crossover style known as rockabilly, and to modern ears it sounds a lot more "country" than it does "rock and roll".

Jingle Bell Rock

Bobby Helms

 Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring
Snowing and blowing up bushels of fun
Now the jingle hop has begun

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time
Dancing and prancing in Jingle Bell Square
In the frosty air.

What a bright time, it's the right time
To rock the night away
Jingle bell time is a swell time
To go gliding in a one-horse sleigh
Giddy-up jingle horse, pick up your feet
Jingle around the clock
Mix and a-mingle in the jingling feet
That's the jingle bell,
That's the jingle bell,
That's the jingle bell rock.