Who Knew?! Songs With Surprising Meanings Part 2

Noel Regney & Gloria Shayne – “Do You Hear What I Hear?”

I know.  I know, you’re thinking:  “This Christmas song?!”  But songwriters Noel and Gloria wrote this song as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 60s after seeing babies being pushed in strollers on the sidewalk in NYC.

Fearing that America would be attacked, Noel penned the lyrics while Gloria developed the melody that would later be on most Christmas albums, particularly the Bing Crosby cover of it.

But while it brings you great memories of Christmas, Gloria was interviewed saying:  “Noel wrote a beautiful song,” Baker told an interviewer years later, “and I wrote the music. We couldn’t sing it, though. . . . Our little song broke us up. You must realize there was a threat of nuclear war at the time.”

Telltale Lyrics:  “Do you see what I see? / A star, a star dancing in the night / With a tail as big as a kite.”

A tail, like the ones that nuclear blasts tend to create.  Think about that next Christmas.