Lindsey Stirling‘s 2017 recording of the traditional song “Carol of the Bells,” from her holiday album Warmer in the Winter, is the only instrumental ever to reach the top 10 on Adult Contemporary radio.  It returns to the airwaves each Christmas, and Lindsey says she thinks its appeal lies in the fact that she worked so hard to make it “awesome.”

It’s my favorite Christmas song: It always has been, and I think it’s ’cause I love instrumental music, so it’s like an instrumental jam!” Lindsey tells ABC Audio.  “And I think that’s why it’s, I think, the best song on my album…’cause it’s my favorite.”

“I spent a lot of time [recording it],” she adds. “I was like, ‘Nope, it’s not good enough.’ And I would, like, go in and take another stab at it: ‘No! It’s not awesome. It has to be awesome!’ So I really worked hard to make that one just the best it could be. You do that with all the songs, but that one, I was insistent — y’know, when it’s your favorite.”

Still, Lindsey pronounces herself “excited and shocked” at the song’s success on the radio, and is delighted that once again, fans seem to be into it this year.

“Sometimes it’s fun to try to lean into things that aren’t necessarily instrumental,” the violinist says of her music. “But that song was always, I feel like, meant to be instrumental. It was originally an instrumental before they ever wrote words to it. So I think that’s why it did so well: It was bringing it back to, like, what it was supposed to be!” 

By Andrea Dresdale
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