The Original White Christmas Soundtrack Was Never Released Due To An Exclusive Record Contract

Snow is beginning to fall, and lights have gone up all over the place to celebrate the holiday season. Families are watching their favorite old movies like 1954's "White Christmas" to get in the mood. Unfortunately, if you want the full, official soundtrack to that particular film, you are out of luck. Even Santa can't fix record contract issues. He really should leave coal in a few record executives' stockings. 

If you've never seen Michal Curtiz's "White Christmas," it's the story of Bob (Bing Crosby) and Phil (Danny Kaye), old WWII war buddies who have gone into show business and had great success. They meet sisters Judy (Vera-Ellen) and Betty (Rosemary Clooney), a performing duo dealing with some hard times. They all end up in Vermont at a failing resort owned by the guys' disgraced Major General (Dean Jagger), putting on a show to save the place and restore some holiday cheer. There is romance, lots of dance numbers, and some beautiful songs from Irving Berlin. 

Some of the songs from "White Christmas," like "Sisters" and the titular song, became instant classics. It's not that you can't find recordings of these songs or watch the original film. You just can't get all the original performances in one place. 

Contract issues are always dicey in the music business. Just look at how Taylor Swift re-recorded some of her songs to get around rights issues after her first several albums were sold by her former label to the highest bidder. Rights were an issue with the "White Christmas" soundtrack, as singer Peggy Lee's website explains. Wait, how does Peggy Lee, often called the Queen of American pop music who wasn't in the film enter into this? We'll get to that.

The issue was that several of the actors in the film were signed to different labels. Decca Records had the rights to the soundtrack for "White Christmas." Stars Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye were both signed to Decca, so their work was fair game. However, Rosemary Clooney was signed with Columbia Records under an exclusive contract, meaning that they couldn't use her voice in an official soundtrack. 

Both record labels put out different recordings of the Irving Berlin-written songs. Columbia Records put out "Irving Berlin's White Christmas," with songs from the film recorded by Clooney. Joining her for some of the performances are Paul Weston, The Mellomen, and Percy Faith. Clooney's character and Crosby's character are a couple in the film, and they sing "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)" together. However, on the album, she sings it with The Mellomen since the two actors couldn't record together contractually. For her version of "Sisters," Rosemary Clooney duets with her real-life sister Betty Clooney.

Decca put out "Selections from Irving Berlin's White Christmas" since Crosby and Kaye were under their label. However, Clooney's "Sisters" duet with Vera-Ellen isn't on there. In fact, the duet wasn't really ever with Vera-Ellen in the first place. Though they perform the song in the film, it's really Trudy Stevens singing for Vera-Ellen in the film. 

So, what about Peggy Lee? The Decca recording has Lee singing the Rosemary Clooney role and even dueting with herself on "Sisters." Stevens may have been shut out of that particular song — one she did in the actual film — but she does join Lee, Crosby, and Kaye for "White Christmas" and "Snow." (Do yourself a favor and don't listen to that one, or it will be in your head until long after this winter's snow has melted. It's too late for me. Save yourselves.)

Oddly enough, Peggy Lee was only briefly with Decca Records from 1952–1956, with the recording for "White Christmas" fitting neatly in there. For the rest of her decades-long career, Lee was signed to Capitol Records. 

It's as twisty as a candy cane, but no one ever said the holidays weren't complicated. If this makes you want to watch the film again, it's streaming as of this writing on Netflix. If you just want to listen, both Rosemary Clooney's "Irving Berlin's White Christmas" and "Selections from Irving Berlin's White Christmas" are on Spotify.