Jingle Bells (Short Version)

“Jingle Bells” wasn't actually written for Christmas. James Lord Pierpont composed it in 1857 for a Thanksgiving program, and it celebrated a very New England pastime: sleigh racing. Nearly a century later, in 1965, astronauts aboard Gemini 6 smuggled a small harmonica into space and played it — making “Jingle Bells” the first song ever performed off the planet.