Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (sometimes with Coming changed to Comin') is a Christmas song. It was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie, and was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934. It became an instant hit with orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music the next day and more than 400,000 copies sold by Christmas.

Recordings

The earliest known recorded version of the song was by banjoist Harry Reser and his band on October 24, 1934 (Decca 264A) featuring Tom Stacks on vocal, the version shown in the Variety charts of December 1934. The song was a sheet music hit, reaching #1. The song was also recorded on September 26, 1935, by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra [1].

The song is a traditional standard at Christmas time, and has been covered by numerous recording artists. In 1970 Rankin-Bass produced an hour-long animated television special based on the song, with narrator Fred Astaire telling the original story of Santa Claus. Artists that have made notable covers of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" include the following:

In addition, the song also appears in the movie Elf, and in late 1983 a Christmas themed Whammy animation was made for Press Your Luck featuring caroling Whammies singing a spoof of the song.

References

Bibliography

• Christmas in the Charts (1920–2004) by Joel Whitburn. Copyright 2004 by Joel Whitburn.

External links

• Lyrics to Santa Claus is Coming To Town