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“It is kind of heartwarming when someone will say to me, ‘I’m at my kid’s recital and they’re doing your song,’ and they’ll send me a video. “When choir groups do it, it’s so charming to me,” Pecknold said. The performance by a vocal band with a young following led to its notice by choir directors around the world. In some respects, the song changed both context and ownership: Google “’White Winter Hymnal’ lyrics” and it’s described as “a Pentatonix song.” Pentatonix’s video of “White Winter Hymnal” has been seen more than 96 million times on YouTube F leet Foxes’ own video, a Claymation scene made by Robin’s brother, Sean, has 23 million views. That’s when the song really took on a new life.

Pentatonix did the same a year later for their album, “That’s Christmas to Me.” But other artists began covering “White Winter Hymnal” and one, Kim Wilde, put her version on a 2013 holiday-themed album. Pecknold didn’t have the holidays in mind when writing. “It reminded me of midnight mass when I would go with my family.” The song “has this kind of magic winter wonderland feeling,” Lyke said. Bathed in warm sun, the couple leap into the lake. They come to a clearing overlooking Lake Champlain and when Pecknold sings the word “summertime,” the scene abruptly switches seasons. 2 favorite track of the year, with critic Stephen Deusner writing, “its meaning may remain unclear after so many listens - something about the passage of seasons - but its spell remains as strong as ever.”Īn aspiring actor, John Frank Lyke, was so obsessed with “White Winter Hymnal” that he made a homemade video featuring a couple walking in the woods through a newly-fallen snow. Pitchfork magazine named the song its No. “White Winter Hymnal” received some notice in the alternative rock world when released in the summer of 2008. In less than two and a half minutes, it’s done. The melody ascends to a peak then tumbles down, much like the song’s character, Michael, falls in the snow. It consists of a single verse, sung three times in a round or perpetual canon style, with multiple voices repeating the same melody at a different starting point (“I was following the…”) The result is a composition of simple, ethereal beauty.

Pecknold estimates it took about 20 minutes. He was trying to wrap up music for the debut album of his band, Fleet Foxes.

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Sometimes there’s just these little cosmic flukes,” said Robin Pecknold, who wrote it when he was 20 years old, sitting on a couch at his parents’ house as “The Simpsons” played on TV in the background.