12 Days of Casey - Day 3

In somewhat of a countdown fashion, HERC will be featuring a different Casey Kasem Christmas show or countdown each day from now until December 25th, in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent and ending with the very first American Top 40 Christmas countdown from 1971.

Day 3 of the 12 Days Of Casey is an episode of American Top 40, featuring the second half of Casey's second "All-Time Christmas Countdown" of the Top 40 Christmas Songs. Casey explains the rankings process:

Our rankings for the All-time Christmas Countdown are based on the AT40 staff's interpretation of thirty-three years' worth of surveys published by Billboard Magazine, including record sales, air-play, jukebox-play, sheet music sales, and continued popularity over the years. In our opinion, a fair ranking of the hit songs of Christmas.

This holiday countdown originally aired on December 22nd, 1973, when HERC was all of seven years old.  Maybe he heard it back then or maybe he didn't but thanks to Premiere Networks, he has heard a replay of that show.  Interesting to note that many of the top 20 songs were played along with medleys of other versions of the same song and #19 wasn't played at all because producers couldn't find a copy of the record in broadcast quality.  (All 20 songs are in playlist below.)  The average release year of the top 20 is 1951 and Bing Crosby has the Top 20 on lock with four songs on the chart.  (It is HERC's humble holiday opinion that Der Bingle's version of #6 should also be on the chart.)  And where in the happy heck is "Jingle Bells" by them ol' Singing Dogs?  It was all over the radio in 1973.

#	title	artist	year
20	I'll Be Home For Christmas	Bing Crosby	1943
19	You're All I Want For Christmas	Frankie Laine	1948
18	Nuttin' For Christmas	Barry Gordon	1955
17	I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus	Jimmy Boyd	1952
16	Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree	Brenda Lee	1958
15	Here Comes Santa Claus	Gene Autry	1947
14	Sleigh Ride	Leroy Anderson	1948
13	Please Come Home For Christmas	Charles Brown	1960
12	Frosty The Snowman	Gene Autry	1950
11	The Chipmunk Song	Alvin & the Chipmunks	1958
10	Santa Claus Is Coming To Town	Bing Crosby	1942
9	Jingle Bells	Bing Crosby	1943
8	Blue Christmas	Elvis Presely	1957
7	Winter Wonderland	Ray Coniff	1959
6	Silver Bells	Jimmy Wakely and Margaret Whiting	1950
5	Jingle Bell Rock	Bobby Helms	1957
4	The Christmas Song	Nat "King" Cole	1946
3	The Little Drummer Boy	Harry Simeone Chorale	1958
2	Rudolph The Red-Nosed Rendeer	Gene Autry	1949
1	White Christmas	Bing Crosby	1942