Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Sleigh Ride" (Pentatonix)

Hey, Howdy, Ho, Ho, Ho!!!  It's December and it's time to go!  Featuring the most popular sounds of the season. It's Tuesday's Musical Notes, that's the reason!  You show up each week and read line by line, waiting for stories and truths beyond time.  So let's get it started, the sleigh bells are ringing!  With tunes so familiar, you'll find yourself singing!

Welcome to the 2nd Tuesday of December 2015!  It's time for another classic seasonal favorite with sprinkles of spiritual insight to boot!  Today's feature song is something that many dream about doing when wintry weather comes.  C'mon, let's go for a "Sleigh Ride"!

"Sleigh Ride" by Pentatonix from their 2014 album That's Christmas To Me

 

For those who love Christmas music, "Sleigh Ride" is a must-listen-to favorite during the holidays.  Artists from all over the musical spectrum have recorded this classic whose original composition began during a heat wave in the summer of 1946. Leroy Anderson biographer, Steve Metcalf,  states that "'Sleigh Ride'...has been performed and recorded by a wider array of musical artists than any other piece in the history of Western Music." Even in your own Christmas music section, you can find many of your favorite artists who have covered this non-Christmas, Christmas song.

The composition was completed by February of 1948 and saw its introductory recording come in 1949 at the baton of Arthur Fielder and his Boston Pops Orchestra.  Original composer Leroy Anderson recorded his own version of "Sleigh Ride" in 1950, and it has since become the most favorite instrumental version of the song.  ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) named "Sleigh Ride" its most popular piece of Christmas music in the USA from 2009-2012, 60 years after its first recording. Not too shabby for a song that mentions very few "Christmassy themes". Johnny Mathis' 1958 recording of "Sleigh Ride" from his 1958 Merry Christmas album is the most popular vocal version of the song.  The possibility is high that since you first read the title of this week's Tuesday's Musical Notes, your favorite recording of this seasonal classic has been running through your head. (We would be remiss if we didn't include the one currently going through our heads..."Sleigh Ride" by Chicago from the 2003 album What's It Gonna Be Santa?)

Obviously, "Sleigh Ride" has become one of the most covered songs in musical history.  Even with the wide variety of arrangements out there of the Christmas classic, it didn't make the list of the most covered songs.  Yes, there is a list, and yes here is the link: "From “Sweet Home Chicago” to “Yesterday,” The Most-Covered Songs In History" from salon.com July 2014

A "cover" of a song is a recording that is completed by someone other than its original recording artist or composer.  Many articles have been written about the "most covered".  We chose the one from salon.com as it included music other than from the pop genre in its listing.  Tuesday's Musical Notes has opined in the past regarding "covers" and our puritanism for the original recordings.  However, as the old saying goes, "Imitation is the highest form of flattery", there are rare occasions when the occasional cover will compete with or excel over the original.  One case in point:  Tuesday's Musical Notes - "You've Got A Friend"

Even for those who aren't religious, the Bible winds up being one of the most "quoted from" books in history.  In this sense, its passages are the most "covered" pieces of literature in existence. In his book, God Breathed, Josh McDowell explains how the Bible has been copied and verifies its inerrancy through his research.  We highly recommend this book to any Small Group leader or staff member as it quantitatively supports what we know in our hearts to be true, The Bible is 100% truthful and without errors.  

As an example of the Bible being the most "covered" piece of literature, The Notes' main source for Scripture passages, biblegateway.com, has 53 English translations and paraphrases from which folks can choose.  This doesn't account for the other languages and dialects that it has at its disposal (even a Cherokee translation of the New Testament).   Here is a list of the most searched-for and requested 100 Verses from biblegateway.com.  The 100 most-read Bible verses at BibleGateway.com, blog from May 2009  These cherished passages of Scripture assist people in finding strength, comfort, and resilience through trials, as well as providing the vehicle for which memorization can take place through repeated reading.  

Repetition is not only a means by which we can memorize Scripture, it is also a means by which God can highlight something really important.  If His Word says it more than once, you might want to pay attention to it.  According to Bible-Study-Tool-Repeated-Words.blogspot.com, the most repeated passage in the King James Version of the Bible is, "And The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,".  It occurs 72 times in just 3 books of the Bible; Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.  Moses is one of the most revered Bible patriarchs and is considered by most scholars the author of the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).  If you look a little deeper, you can see that this particular passage has insight past introducing a conversation that is about to occur between God and Moses.  

When something is repeated, it usually means there is some import to it or its meaning that folks should remember. (Did you see what we just did...we repeated a concept because we thought it was important, not just because our memory was failing...)  In the case of "And The Lord spake unto Moses, saying," the takeaway is that the Creator of the Universe felt so comfortable with the man Moses, that many conversations with him were worth having.  Most Christian folks would quickly admit that the relationship they have with God through the shed blood of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is not as good as the one-on-one relationship with God that Moses had.  The Lord spoke directly to him!!!  According to recorded Scripture, this personal communication happened at least 72 times!  We however have an advantage over Moses.  We DO have the shed blood of Jesus that purifies us!  We DO have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us!  So that means we CAN have a similar one-on-one relationship with God that Moses had.  We need only listen when The Lord speaks to us.  Sometimes this is difficult.  Sometimes we don't want to hear what God is telling us.  Sometimes we aren't in a position for Him TO speak to us.  Sometimes He may have to repeat what He is saying over and over again.  Notice that the barriers to God communicating directly with us are all put into place by us...

This Christmas season, let us refresh our commitment to better communicate with God.  That begins by us repeatedly listening to and for Him.  He has things to speak unto us this Christmas season and every day if we allow His Word to get past those "sleigh bells ringlin' jing, jing, jinglin' too"...

"Word Of God Speak" from the 2003 album Spoken For by Mercy Me

'Til Tuesday

Serving HIM by serving you,

Randy