One of the more joyous holiday songs has a contentious authorship history.
The song is credited to two marketing guys, Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe, But the most famous performer of the song, Bobby Helms, said he and studio musician Hank Garland turned the lousy tune they were given into a holiday classic – and that the final recording bears no resemblance to the original.
ASCAP and BMI usually work that stuff out for musicians. Beal and Boothe still get the credit. Everyone from Ariana Grande to Blake Shelton is paying them for the rights.
For Helms, who was more of a country star than rocker, “Jingle Bell Rock” was his big claim to fame. So here’s his version:
SUBJECTISM 