What’s the best-selling song by an actor ever released?
It has to be said: in terms of shocking sonic calamities over the years, it is almost always an actor who holds the weight of responsibility.
Between the likes of Kate Winslet, Will Smith, Anna Kendrick, as well as a slew of others who do not even warrant a mention, it’s fair to say that mastering the worlds of both the big screen and the charts can be a tough nut to crack. Of course, let’s not deny that the same is equally true for musicians trying to break cinema – looking at you, Lady Gaga.
Yet it remains the case in the majority of instances that when actors try to venture into song, whether via a movie soundtrack or in their own attempt at a pop career, it often ends in vain. A mere select few manage to survive the fight to the top, and for that feat alone, they deserve every piece of acclaim that ever gets thrown their way.
Naturally, this creates the point that most of those who have managed to hold their own in both the music and movie worlds over the years are often of the more classic visage. It speaks to a time when the industry was far more geared towards the all-round classic entertainer than the modern single-threat.
But if you want to find an example of a man who could do it all, you wouldn’t have to look any further than Bing Crosby. His selection of credits were many and massive over the years, but none even came close to the heights of ‘White Christmas’, becoming the best-selling song ever to be released by an actor, and indeed one of the best-selling singles of all time.
What made ‘White Christmas’ so significant for actor Bing Crosby?
The irony is not lost that we are returning to talking about a Christmas song when the yearly festive season has only just been and gone, but the enduring appeal of ‘White Christmas’ has most definitely stood the test of time and cemented Crosby in a legendary league, as if he wasn’t already destined for that fate anyway.
Although it seems that the song has been around forever and thus been stapled as a bona fide festive classic, it was only in 1942 that Irving Berlin penned the tune for the film Holiday Inn, and thus created a cultural behemoth spanning both the sonic and filmic worlds. Perhaps not since then has one singular song captured such an imagination across all facets of the industry, but then again, they just don’t make them like they used to.
When ‘White Christmas’ won the Oscar for ‘Best Original Song’, many would be mistaken for thinking this would be the crowning jewel in its legacy. But the charts tell a whole other story. After spending an initial 11-week stint at the top of the charts upon its release, ‘White Christmas’ once again returned to number one over the festive seasons of the subsequent 1943 and 1944. In terms of physical media, it’s also the best-selling single of all time, having sold more than 50 million copies.
It’s a testament to the fact that the longest-living songs are often the ones with the simplest sentiments, meaning no matter whether it was 1955, 2025, or anywhere in between, ‘White Christmas’ was always destined to continue its streak of chart glory. Crosby may have been the man behind that piece of magic, but the reality is worth so much more.
