For millennia, bells told an illiterate population everything: of weddings, funerals, ships traversing through dense fog, or simply the time of day. These days, that association has softened somewhat and the once-resounding cultural significance of bells has been belittled to the point of obsolescence. As the year crescendos to a close and the cloy of Christmas season sets in, only then do bells re-emerge as intrinsic elements of western culture.
With Christmas music being piped into shopping centres and Home Alone creeping its way into the mid-afternoon slot of television schedules, one aspect becomes distinctly commonplace: the jingle-jangle of sleigh bells. Christmas media forms are typified by sleigh bells and there is rarely an opportunity to escape it. As a result of this seasonal link, many dismiss the sleigh bell as a throwaway gimmick. Overexposed to its cheerful symbolism, we quickly decide it’s something modern society would rather do without beyond December 25th.
This writer, however, dispels that notion. The scope of sleigh bells reaches far beyond the initial perceptions of society, as proven by its understated presence in popular music. Here I present but a small number of examples to illustrate how the sleigh bell has escaped the seasonal norm and sneaked into many songs you know and love.
“Gin and Juice” – Snoop Dogg ft Daz Dillinger
The second single of debut album Doggystyle opens with a brazen offering of sleigh bell, looped jollily over a bass line groove sampled from minor George McCrae hit “I Get Lifted”. The use of sleigh bell was undoubtedly inspired by New York hip-hop group Onyx, featuring heavily on their 1993 hits “Shiftee” and “Slam”. “Gin and Juice” proved a hit (no doubt assisted by the aptly used sleigh bell), earning a nomination for best rap solo performance at the 1995 Grammy Awards, and sparked a trend that saw it become more commonplace across rap genres throughout the mid-late nineties.
You Might Also Like: “Tha Shizznit”, also featuring on Doggystyle by Snoop Dogg.
“God Only Knows” – The Beach Boys
Featuring as the B-Side to “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and on seminal surf rock album Pet Sounds, the song features a variety of instruments uncommon in popular music at the time such as harpsichord, accordion and most notably sleigh bell. The performance of sleigh bell is, in fact, credited to jingle writer and song co-writer Tony Asher, adding to the song’s almost baroque feel and taking the edge off the wall of sound. Pet Sounds, released in 1966, adopts much of the sleigh bell already employed in earlier works Beach Boys Today!, Summer Days (And Summer Nights), and, rather obviously, The Beach Boys Christmas Album.
You Might Also Like: “Dance Dance Dance”, featuring on Beach Boys Today! by The Beach Boys.
“I Wanna Be your Dog” – The Stooges
Prototypical punk band The Stooges’s best-known hit, “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, from their debut record certainly owes much of its raucous and heavy sound to the sleigh bell. It complements the banging piano, thumping beat and distortion-laden guitar from the offset, adding to the thrashing cacophony of instrumentation. Producer John Cale, also a member of The Velvet Underground, provided the expert jingling that makes this tune so memorable.
You Might Also Like: “Femme Fatale”, featuring on The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground.
“Airbag” – Radiohead
Airbag constitutes the final single of OK Computer, an album lauded by critics as one of the greatest albums in recent times. Sleigh bells glisten, juxtaposing a lullaby effect over dub-like bass, a sliced up drum track sample and washy vocals. It adds an almost human element to song lyrics concerning the blurry realms of existence and metaphysics, as opposed to the usual dystopian electronic drum patterns used by the band. That said, lead singer Thom Yorke was once noted to have said that he “hated the studio version” of the song, purely because of the bells.
You Might Also Like: “Moving In Stereo”, featuring on The Cars by The Cars.
“At My Most Beautiful” – R.E.M.
Possibly R.E.M.’s most overtly romantic song, it’s an obvious nod to the lasting influence of the Beach Boys on the band. It mirrors many elements of the aforementioned sleigh bell ballad “God Only Knows”, although it is perhaps more minimalist in terms of composition. Sleigh bells reverberate over soft piano, guitars and bass, echoing the same sentiment as the classic Beach Boys hit. It’s not so much a pastiche as it is a homage to the stirring melancholic effects of sleigh bells that evoke something different to ordinary instruments.
You Might Also Like: “You Can Do Better Than Me”, featuring on Narrow Stairs by Death Cab For Cutie.
“School Boy Crush” – Average White Band
Although best known for instrumental funk track “Pick Up The Pieces”, Scottish R&B group Average White Band’s lasting influence on popular music stems from this sleigh-bell-driven beat. The song has been sampled in over 140 songs since its release, lending its sleigh bell rhythm to a slew of rap, hip-hop and R&B hits that followed the same mid-nineties trend as “Gin And Juice”. Artists like Nas, TLC, De La Soul, Public Enemy and the previously mentioned Onyx all borrowed the same sleigh bell element, exemplifying its prevalence in east coast rap, contrary to Snoop Dogg’s use of sleigh bell.
You Might Also Like: “Halftime”, featuring on Zebrahead by Nas.
Varied as this list tried to be, there were a number of songs, however, that deserve honourable mentions for their contribution to the cause, namely: “Some People Will Never Know” by Wings, “Bicycle Race” by Queen, “Cherry-Coloured Funk” by The Cocteau Twins, “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice” by The Lovin’ Spoonful, “Charlie Freak” by Steely Dan, and “Careful (Click, Click)” by Wu Tang Clan.
It’s clear that sleigh bells have permeated popular music beyond the remit of the holiday season. It transcends genres, cultures, and lends a new dimension to pop tracks otherwise ordinary in their absence. Sleigh bells are not just a gimmick and, for lack of a better phrase, not just for Christmas.
