The Twelve Days of “White Christmas”... Number 8. Bing Loses His Money Song

Bing's character prefers bucks over babes and originally had a song to express this preference.

The first song Irving Berlin wrote expressly for White Christmas never made it into the picture. Berlin composed the song “Sittin’ in the Sun (Countin’ My Money)” in August 1952 for Bing Crosby to sing in the film’s “Palm Beach” sequence, to illustrate that Bing’s character was perfectly content without romance.

Although the tune would not be included in White Christmas, it was recorded in 1953 by Louis Armstrong (click here to hear) and Frankie Laine (click here).

Once you know what the song was written for, its lyrics make a lot more sense:

Sittin’ in the sun
Countin’ my money
Fanned by my summer breeze
Sweeter than the honey is counting my money
Those greenbacks on the trees
Comes the summer shower drops of rain falling
Sweeter than the Christmas chimes
Hearing those jingles upon the roof shingles
Like pennies, nickels and dimes

Though it’s known that what I own
It’s not a large amount
Fields of gold that I behold
Are in my bank account
Yeah, sittin’ in the sun
Countin’ my money
Happy as I can be
And to top it all when shadows fall
I look to heaven and I see
There's a silver dollar
In the sky shining down on me

Sittin’ in the sun
Countin’ my money
Happy as I can be
And to top it all when the shadows fall
I look to heaven and I see
There’s a silver dollar
In the sky and it’s shining
It goes shining in
Shining down on me

® Irving Berlin