Sometimes a Christmas song can take a while to catch on…slowly inching its way toward becoming a standard. 

This week, we’re looking at “Please Come Home for Christmas” by the Eagles. The song was originally released by Charles Brown in 1960–but it took 12 years  to climb to #1 on Billboard’s Christmas Chart.

THEN it was another 6 years before the Eagles covered it in 1978, and accomplished something no other Christmas song had done since 1963’s “Pretty Paper” by Roy Orbison: It cracked the top 20 on Billboard’s REGULAR Hot 100, peaking at number 18!

After that, the floodgates seemed to open…with covers by Bon Jovi, Willie Nelson, Martina McBride, and Kelly Clarkson, just to name a few.

So when you get right down to it, “Please Come Home for Christmas” has been a “Great Christmas Song” for the better part of SIXTY-FIVE years…but it took the Eagles until 1978 to turn it into a true Christmas standard.

Eagles:

Charles Brown:

Bon Jovi:

Willie Nelson:

Martina McBride:

Kelly Clarkson:

— Mike Cook