In 1971 a diverse group of youth climbed a hilltop in Tuscany, Italy and sang, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.”
The song became an iconic part of Coca-Cola’s “It’s the real thing” ad campaign.
The song caught on with the public and was reworded without the commercial reference to Coke and it became an instant hit tune.
The original commercial version of the song included the line, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke, and keep it company.”
The idea of the hilltop song and commercial was born in the mind of an executive for the advertising firm with the Coca-Cola account. In an Irish airport, he observed a plane full of angry people with hot tempers explode when the flight he was on was postponed due fog.
The next morning while sitting in the airport cafe waiting to reboard the plane, the executive noticed his formerly hot-tempered flight mates now sitting together talking civilly and laughing, while drinking Coca-Cola.
The legend says the executive scrawled the words, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke,” on a napkin, stuck it in his pocket and shared it with the British songwriters he was headed to meet in London.
Perfect harmony. Different voices, different tones combined together to create a sound that is pleasing to the ear.
I’m not a music theorist or an acoustical physicist, but I understand the concept of the fifth note or the “angel’s voice” created by the tight perfect harmony of a four-part a cappella group.
The sound of four parts musically weave together in what appears to be a magical manner and create what the ear interprets as a fifth part or note.
The ear hears five sounds, but the eye only sees four singers.
Think of it: If we could just buy the whole world a Coke and sit down together and forget our differences while singing in perfect harmony.
“… I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. A song of peace that echoes on and never goes away…”
Perfect harmony. That’s what I like about Christmas.
While Christmas Day was most likely hijacked from a pagan celebration by an early second century pope, Dec. 25 has become an almost universal date for Christians around the world to lay down their differences and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the central figure of Christianity.
Pardon what may seem as an irreverent simile, but the Christmas season is like the Christian world buying a Coke and sitting down in a foggy Irish airport, joining hands and singing in perfect harmony.
I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Scotland. I remember my mission president spoke about the spirit of Christmas at a fireside.
With so many Christian people of different faiths turning their thoughts towards Jesus Christ during Christmas time, the heavens cannot help but pour out a special feeling, or “spirit of Christmas” during the holiday season, he said
As Christmas becomes more commercialized, it appears that the religious traditions that created the amalgamated American Christmas holiday have not been successfully transmitted to rising generations.
As a result, I fear, the spirit of Christmas struggles to find the hearts of men.
The day after Thanksgiving shoppers trample each other in a quest to get the best bargain. And the secular Santa Claus has replaced Saint Nicholas.
Plastic trees in living rooms have become nothing more than a place to store expensive gifts. People hang up wreaths with no knowledge of what the circle of greenery represents.
One of my favorite Christmas stories centers on a musical solo that resulted in the kind of perfect harmony that the world should sing.
The story is unsubstantiated. Like most legends, I am sure it has been embellished over time. I beg persnickety historians to overlook any historical errors.
The story is set on a battle field of the Franco-Prussian war on Christmas eve of 1870, or maybe it was 1871.
During a lull in the volley of gunfire between the German and French soldiers, a French soldier jumped out of his foxhole.
With his eyes towards the starry sky, he started to belt out, in a bold and operatic voice, the words to the French Christmas carol, “Cantique de Noel,” known in English as “O Holy Night.”
The spirit brought on by the lone French soldier is reported to have affected a 24-hour cease-fire in the war.
“Truly he taught us to love one another, His law is love and his gospel is peace,” the lone soldier sang.
This story is even more poignant when you consider that a Frenchman, who later abandoned his faith for the non-religious socialist philosophy that swept through France in the 1800s, penned the words to “O Holy Night” and his Jewish friend put the words to music.
Can you imagine the reaction to somebody standing in the middle of Walmart in the heat of Christmas Eve and singing “O Holy Night”?
I’ll be working on Dec. 26. We have a paper to put out the next Monday, but I’m going to have lunch at Denny’s at noon. Stop by and I’ll buy you a Coke.