"The Bells of St. Mary's" is a 1917 popular song. The music was written by A. Emmett Adams, the lyrics[1] by Douglas Furber, following a visit to St. Mary's Church, Southampton, England.[2]
The song was revived, in 1945 in the Hollywood musical of the same name, by Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. On June 14, 1962, it was recorded by Perry Como [3] for an album, By Request, but was omitted from the album as released.
Due to the inclusion in the 1945 film of a scene featuring a Christmas pageant, both the film and the song have come to be associated with the Yuletide season although the latter has no direct lyrical connection with the holiday (and, indeed, refers to the "red leaves" of autumn in the chorus). Many singers have included a cover of "The Bells of St. Mary's" on their Christmas albums.
The song appears in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus. In a skit called "Musical Mice", Ken Ewing (Terry Jones) claims to have trained mice to squeal at the specific pitches necessary to play the song (as he demonstrates with debatable success).[4]. The Drifters' version is featured in the movie Goodfellas, in the Christmas Eve scene with Henry Hill and family, and the following scene where Stacks (Samuel L. Jackson) is shot dead by Tommy Devito (Joe Pesci).
This song is also associated with Saint Mary's College (Indiana).
A version of this song is the alma mater of State University of New York Maritime College, whose first training ship was the USS St. Mary's.