#7 -- "White Christmas" by The Drifters

Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" sung by The Drifters

"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.

Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song.[4] One story is that he wrote it in 1940, in warm La Quinta, California (in the desert near Palm Springs, CA), while staying at the La Quinta Hotel, a frequent Hollywood retreat also favored by writer-director-producer Frank Capra, although the Arizona Biltmore also claims the song was written there.[5] He often stayed up all night writing — he told his secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!"

In 1954, The Drifters released a cover version of the song that showcased the talents of lead singer Clyde McPhatter and the bass vocals of Bill Pinkney. Their recording of the song peaked at number 2 on Billboard's Rhythm & Blues Records chart in December 1954 (it also returned to the same chart in the next two years). In December 1955, "White Christmas" became the Drifters' first of 34 singles to register on the mainstream Billboard Top 100 singles chart, reaching number 80.[27] For decades, the Drifters' version of the song was primarily heard on R&B radio stations, getting little exposure elsewhere. The song received a boost in the early 1990s,[citation needed] when it was prominently featured in the film Home Alone during a scene in which the lead character Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) is applying his father's aftershave while mouthing the lyrics. Radio stations formats as diverse as oldies, adult contemporary, Top 40, and country began playing the Drifters' version of the song, which was also featured in the 1994 films Mixed Nuts and The Santa Clause. (source: Wikipedia)