Singer: Carrie Underwood

From the time she first auditioned for American Idol, it was clear that Carrie Underwood was destined for stardom. She's won virtually every country music award, and has sold far more albums than any other Idol alum. Uploaded by best-wallpapers.com.

One of the cool things about watching Carrie Underwood rise to the highest heights of the country music industry is that those of us who watch American Idol have been able to follow her career since the very beginning. We saw the beautiful girl from Checotah, Oklahoma audition during Season 4, and it was evident from the very first that she was going to be a force. We’ve since learned that she dominated the voting each week, and she was crowned that season’s American Idol.

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Simon Cowell predicted that Underwood would outsell every other Idol, not a terribly bold prediction at the time. But he turned out to be prophetic. Her debut album, Some Hearts, entered the Country chart at number one, and made it to number two on the Billboard 200. Her next two albums made it to number one. She’s had ten singles reach the top of the Country chart, and as of January, 2011 she’s sold 1.6 million more albums than the nearest Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson.

I trust Underwood has a large trophy cabinet, because she’s earned a lot of awards in her short career. Five Grammys, including Best New Artist and Best Female Country Vocal Performance (3x). CMA Female Vocalist of the Year (3x). Academy of Country Music Awards Female Vocalist of the Year (4x) and Entertainer of the Year. And many more awards from Billboard, People’s Choice, CMT, BMI, and others. And here’s the exciting thing for country music fans – she’s done all this, and she just turned 28…

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Song: “White Christmas”

"White Christmas" was released in July 1942 - and did nothing. Must have been the season. By the end of October it was number one, and upon re-releases reached the charts an astounding 20 times. Uploaded by ecx.images-amazon.com.

My favorite Christmas album in my childhood was Bing Crosby’s Merry Christmas, which was released as an LP in 1949 and has never since been out of print. It’s still one of the most popular Christmas albums ever, and of course it contains the classic Irving Berlin song, “White Christmas.”

Crosby first performed “White Christmas” on his NBC radio show on Christmas Day, 1941. He recorded it the following year, and included it in an album of songs from the movie Holiday Inn. The album debuted in July, and maybe the season wasn’t right, because the song floundered. But by the end of October it topped the charts, where it stayed for eleven weeks. Re-released each holiday season, it also went to number one in 1945 and 1946. In fact, it appeared on the

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charts for twenty separate years, eventually leading Billboard to create a separate chart just for holiday music.

The song as it appeared in Holiday Inn received the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and it helped make the movie White Christmas the runaway box office champion of 1954. The song’s many appearances on the charts have led to it being the best-selling single of all time – more than 50 million sold, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Counting the albums it’s been on, that total exceeds 100 million. Bing Crosby gets the credit, and deserves it; but don’t forget the brilliance of Irving Berlin (Great American Things, May 11, 2010) who wrote this wonderful song.