White Christmas is the best-selling song of all time. The song was written by Irving Berlin in 1942 for the film Holiday Inn, and recorded for the film by Bing Crosby (Decca 14829A) on May 29 of that year. Crosby was backed by the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers. Originally, the opening line was "I'm sitting here in Beverly Hills dreaming of a white Christmas". Upon the insistence of Jack Kapp, presidente of Decca Records, Irving Berlin deleted the line from the song. (The Carpenter's version reinstalled the opening line). God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen was on the flip side of Crosby's original recording. White Christmas won the Oscar for Best Song at the Academy Awards ceremonies. Croby's version made Billboard's charts every year between 1942 and 1962, except for 1952 and 1953. It was number one in 1942, and #2 in 1946. In the rock era, White Christmas cracked the top 10 in 1955 (#7) and almost did it again in 1961 (#12). On the Easy-Listening chart, White Christmas was #3 in 1962 and #10 in 1962.

Hundreds of other artists have recorded White Christmas since 1942, including Frank Sinatra (Columbia 36756), who reached #7 in 1944 and #8 in 1946; the Drifters (Atlantic 1048), whose recording was a rhythm & blues hit in 1954 and 1955; and Ernest Tubb (Decca 46186), who reached #15 on the country chart in 1949. (The flip side of Tubb's release was Blue Christmas, which peaked at #2).

On September 6, 1957, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, Elvis recorded White Christmas based on the the Drifters' 1954 recording. Take #9 was chosen by RCA for release. When first released, Elvis's version received much negative publicity, and many disc jockeys refused to play the song or any of the other cuts on the LP Elvis' Christmas Album.