What Was the Very First Christmas Rock Song?

‘Tis the season… to listen to Christmas music just about all over the place you go, whether or not you like it or do not. But who first introduced the vacation spirit to rock music?

The origins of Christmas music date all the method again to the fourth century. Various sources together with Southern Living and Billboard cite “Jesus Refulsit Omnium” (Latin for “Jesus, Light of All the Nations”), written by St. Hilary of Poitier, as the very first Christmas hymn. The hymn was reportedly written after the first-ever recorded Christmas celebration, which passed off on Dec. 25 in 336 A.D.

The English Christmas carols that we all know immediately did not grow to be extra widespread till the sixteenth century, although, which was fairly some time earlier than rock ‘n’ roll even existed as a method of music. As of immediately, a bunch of rock and steel artists have coated vacation classics and even written their very own authentic Christmas songs, so we needed to discover the historical past of Christmas music in rock.

What Was the Very First Rock Christmas Song?

If you ask Google this query, the reply you will seemingly see come up the most is the 1957 track “Jingle Bell Rock,” which was carried out by Bobby Helms, who was technically considered a rustic singer. However, a month earlier than that track got here out (in October of ’57), Elvis Presley — the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll — launched a full album of Christmas songs packaged as Elvis’ Christmas Album. 

“It’ll be a rock ’n’ roll Christmas,” Presley stated throughout a press convention that 12 months, in accordance with the Elvis History Blog.

Featuring songs equivalent to “Blue Christmas” and “Santa Claus Is Back in Town,” the album had a mixture of the blues, gospel music and a few Christmas carols. It was acquired fairly negatively by the media, with some calling it “sacrilegious,” notably his cowl of “White Christmas.” The Ohio Penitentiary News wrote that the authentic model of the track was “a song beloved until this creature recorded his barnyard version of it.”

Radio stations refused to play songs from the record, but it still managed to reach the top of the album chart during the holiday season that year anyway. So technically, any of the songs from this album can answer the question, but the two we mentioned just before probably fit the criteria for “rock” and “Christmas” the best.

Which Rock Artists Released Christmas Music After Elvis Presley?

As we already mentioned, “Jingle Bell Rock” came out a month after Presley’s Christmas album. The following year (1958), Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run” became the latest addition to the rock Christmas catalog. Brenda Lee’s 1958 hit “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is considered rockabilly, so we’ll give it credit too,

By the ’60s, as rock music became more popular, so did Christmas rock music. The Beach Boys followed in Presley’s footsteps, releasing a full collection of holiday songs in 1964 appropriately titled The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album. 

Since then, tons of rock and metal artists have dabbled in the holiday spirit to bring a little bit of rock and a little bit of brutality to fans’ playlists every year. See some of our favorite heavy holiday tracks here.

READ MORE: 2023 Holiday Gift Guide for Rock + Metal Fans