"Please Come Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song, released in 1960, by the American blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 singer and pianist Charles Brown

Charles Brown (musician)

Charles Brown , born in Texas City, Texas was an American blues singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced the development of blues performance during the 1940s and 1950s...

. Hitting Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

’s Hot 100 chart in December 1961, the tune Brown co-wrote with Gene Redd peaked at position #76. It appeared on the Christmas Singles chart for nine seasons, hitting #1 in 1972. It includes a number of characteristics of Christmas music

Christmas music

Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season, which tends to begin in the months leading up the actual holiday and end in the weeks shortly thereafter.-Early:...

, such as multiple references in the lyrics to the Christmas season

Christmas season

Christmastide is one of the seasons of the liturgical year of most Christian churches. It tends to be defined as the period from Christmas Eve to the evening of 5 January, the day before Epiphany...

 and Christmas traditions, and the use of a Church bell

Church bell

A church bell is a bell which is rung in a church either to signify the hour or the time for worshippers to go to church, perhaps to attend a wedding, funeral, or other service...

 type sound, created using a piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, at the start of the song. It is sometimes referred to as Bells Will Be Ringing.

Eagles version

In 1978, the rock band Eagles covered and released the song as a single. Their version of the song peaked at #18 on the U.S. Billboard

Billboard charts

The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...

Hot 100 charts. The lineup features Don Henley (drums/vocals), Glenn Frey (piano, backing vocals), Joe Walsh (guitar, backing vocals), Timothy B. Schmidt (bass/backing vocals), and Don Felder (lead guitar). Originally released as a vinyl 7" single, it was re-released in the nineties as a CD-single.

Charles Brown

Chart (1962)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	76

Eagles

Chart (1978)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	18
U.K. Singles Charts	30
Chart (1995)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	15
Chart (2005)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs	74

Gary Allan

Chart (1997)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	70

Lee Roy Parnell

Chart (1997)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	71

Willie Nelson

Chart (2004)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	50

Josh Gracin

Chart (2006)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs	51