Ken Foote's Holiday Songs: Bobby Helms & Jingle Bell Rock

(CBS 11) - Bobby Helms (born Robert Lee Helms on August 15, 1933 and died on June 19, 1997) was a country/pop/rockabilly singer from the 1950s.

He started a successful solo career in country music and, by 1956, he had signed a recording contract with Decca Records. His first song on the Billboard Hot 100 was "My Special Angel" in October 1957 which finished at #7 but #1 on the country charts. His second hit, "Fraulein" was not a success on the Hot 100 but was a #1 country hit. But he is probably best known for a holiday song still played on radio today: "Jingle Bell Rock."

There are some various stories and claims as to actually wrote "Jingle Bell Rock" but according to ASCAP and All Music, it was written by Joseph Beal and James Boothe. The Helms version of the song was released in October 1957 and became so popular it was played on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. It hit #6 on Billboard and was Helms' most successful Hot 100 hit. It also attained gold record status. Running 2:12, the lyrics go like this:

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 rock

Other great performances of this song were done by George Strait, Aaron Tippin, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton & Miranda Lambert, Chubby Checker & Bobby Rydell and Hall & Oates.

A #1 song on the U.S. Holiday Airplay charts! Playing now on radio stations that have flipped to all holiday music and on Sirius XM Channel 3 and 4.