Jingle Bells

Background

James Lord Pierpont filed the copyright for "The One Horse Open Sleigh" on September 16, 1857, crediting himself as both writer and composer. The song may have been written as a drinking tune, and it took decades before it became linked to Christmas. Pierpont dedicated it to John P. Ordway, who led a performance group called Ordway's Aeolians. Exactly where or when Pierpont wrote the song remains unclear.

A plaque in Medford, Massachusetts, marks a tavern there as the birthplace, claiming he wrote it in 1850. Researcher Kyna Hamil, however, thinks Pierpont composed it in Boston before moving to Savannah in the fall of 1857. The piece was first performed on September 15, 1857, at Ordway Hall in Boston by blackface minstrel Johnny Pell. In 1859, Oliver Ditson and Company republished it under the new title "Jingle Bells; or, The One Horse Open Sleigh." By the time the song was copyrighted, Pierpont had already relocated to Savannah, Georgia, where he worked as organist and music director at the Unitarian Church, serving alongside his brother, the minister.