Travel Tunes - Week 8 (Christmas Edition)

This one is for my dad, who passed on around eight years ago.  Not a real music lover, this is one of the few songs he ever admitted to listening to, let alone getting to him.  Stationed in bitter cold of Korea just after the war, he'd hear this song while not being able to go home for the holidays and it'd just tear him up inside.

"I'll be Home for Christmas," of course, talks about how the singer will be traveling home and all the things they're looking forward to.  In a melancholy melody, we hear about the snow, mistletoe, and presents under the tree.  Pretty simple, straightforward lyrics.  It's the last line that grabs people's hearts.

Written by Buck Ram, Kim Gannon and Walter Kent...and recorded just about every singer under the sun...in August, 1943, it's the original version we'll present this week by Bing Crosby, recorded in the fall of 1943 and peaking at number 3 on the charts.  Unfortunately, I can't find a clip of him actually singing it, so this montage will have to do.

Merry Christmas from The World on Wheels!