"Sleigh Ride" was one of the first things I wrote when ... it was very natural them to write a melody that was not only in the same rhythm, but it had the same repeated notes, like - - -, and ...

Completed in 1948, Sleigh Ride was not written as a Christmas piece ... "Blue Tango", a lilting instrumental with a sweeping melody, became the "top single" of 1952. It was at the top of the ...