23 December—The most popular secular Christmas songs: “White Christmas,” written by Irving Berlin for the 1942 musical film “Holiday Inn”: Bing Crosby’s recording remains the best-selling single of all time.

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” written by brothers-in-law Johnny Marks and Robert May: originally recorded by Gene Autry in 1949, second only to “White Christmas” in total sales.

“The Christmas Song” (a.k.a. “Chet’s Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire”), written by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells in the summer of 1945: according to Broadcast Music Inc., it’s the most performed Christmas song of all time.

In addition to having been written in the mid-twentieth century, what do these winners have in common? If you guessed that all three Christmas songs are the work of Jews, ten dreidels for you. (Robert Wells was born Robert Levinson, by the way, but that’s irrelevant.)

It’s hard to believe, but no secular Chanukah songs have ever made the charts. Nor have songs for secular Kwanzaa or Festivus. But give Kwanzaa and Festivus time for capitalism to do its thing.

As it happens, the best Chanukah ditty, as far as The Monitor’s editorial bored is concerned, isn’t secular at all but is actually the setting of a prayer. It’s the “Shehecheyanu,” a blessing for happy events, including but not limited to Chanukah. “Shehecheyanu” means “that we are alive” and, like virtually all Jewish prayers, expresses gratitude. Jews don’t beg.

The magnificent setting of “Shehecheyanu” in question is by Meyer Machtenberg (1884-1979), the top synagogue choirmaster and liturgical composer of his time. It’s his most popular work because, as one critic put it, its “style bears more in common with a vaudeville act than a sacred service.” What the schmuck means, of course, is that it’s reminiscent of Rossini and is an absolute delight. That’s why it’s popular.

So here’s Meyer Machtenberg’s setting of the “Shehecheyanu”: