Saturday, August 16, 2008

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Christmas Song

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town is a popular song of the Christmas time. It was first performed on Eddie Cantors radio show in November 1934 and was written by J.Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. Based on the song, an animated television special was produced by Rankin Bass in 1970 with the same title. Numerous recording artists have produced cover versions of the song since its release in the 1930s.

The original version of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town was recorded by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra on September 26, 1935. The song had been written the previous year by Haven Gillespie and J. F Coots and had been aired on the radio show hosted by Eddie Cantor in November 1934. The song became a huge hit overnight with orders of 100,000 copies of sheet music placed the next day. By Christmas time, the song had sold 400,000 copies.

The first recording of the song, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Benny Goodman. Actually Benny Goodman had recorded the John Mercer tune, Santa Claus Came in the Spring in 1935. However, the original song has been widely covered by other recording artists and some of the best known versions are by Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Dolly Parton and Mariah Carey.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town is one of the biggest favorites of the Christmas season. The song has four stanzas and is based on the popular legend that Santa Claus brings gifts for those children who have been good all through the year. The song has proved to be a hit with children down the ages.

The song Santa Claus Is Coming To Town inspired an animated television musical in 1970 with the same title. The film was produced by Rankin-Bass and starred Fred Astaire as the narrator and Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle/Santa Claus. The film tells the story behind the many legends surrounding Christmas and Santa Claus and how the traditions became popular.

The film includes two versions of the title song, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. One is an instrumental and the other is sung at the end of the film by Special Delivery Kluger with the Westminster Childrens Choir. The film is one of the three Christmas special films made by Rankin-Bass and the other two are Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Wikipedia

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Christmas Song

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