When Christmas comes around, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that Bing. With an estimated 50 million physical singles sold, Bing Crosby’s version of “White Christmas” is the best-selling recording of all time, according to Guinness World Records. (The Billboard Hot 100 wasn’t around yet when it came out.) It “deals with [the] singer’s nostalgia for the peaceful, gracious Christmases of yore,” read a review in the Aug. 8, 1942, issue of Billboard. “This tune will become more and more important.” Perhaps the magazine had been visited by the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.

‘Faithful’ Hit

When the Jan. 10, 1942, Billboard rounded up the “in demand” Christmas recordings of 1941, “Bing Crosby standbys” such as “Silent Night” and “Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful)” scored as “the be

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