White Christmas (song) the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers and for Decca Records in just 18 minutes on May 29, 1942, and it was released on July 30 as part of an album of six 78-rpm discs from the musical film "Holiday Inn". At first, Crosby did not see anything special about the song. He just said "I don't think we have any problems with that one, Irving." The song established that there could be commercially successful secular Christmas songs—in this case, written by a Jewish-American songwriter. The song initially performed poorly and was overshadowed by "Holiday Inn"'s first
In Which We Serve Which We Sink"". On Christmas Eve 1942 in New York, the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures honoured the film as the Best English Language Film of the Year citing Bernard Miles and John Mills for their performances. The film was nominated in the 1943 Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay (losing out to "Casablanca" and "Princess O'Rourke" respectively). However, Coward was presented with an Academy Honorary Award for "his outstanding production achievement." "In Which We Serve" also won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film (beating "Casablanca") and the Argentine Film Critics