Jazz Christmas | O Holy NIght

Did you know that the first song to ever play on the radio was a Christmas Carol? Indeed it was, and that song was the incomparable O Holy Night, brought to the airwaves on Christmas Eve in 1906 by a thirty-three-year-old university professor and former chief chemist for Thomas Edison, Reginald Fessenden.

Using a new type of generator, Fessenden spoke into a microphone, and for the first time in history a voice was broadcast over airwaves—a reading from Luke’s Gospel record. To the few who caught the broadcast, it must have seemed like a miracle. Fessenden was likely unaware of the sensation he caused on ships and in offices. He could not know that men and women—used to receiving coded impulses through their wireless devices—were now rushing to them to catch the Christmas Eve miracle.

Where does O Holy Night come into play, you wonder? After finishing his recitation of Jesus’ birth, Fessenden picked up his violin and softly played O Holy Night into the microphone, the first song ever sent through the airwaves. When the Carol ended, so did his broadcast, but the world would forever be changed as music found a medium that would take it worldwide.