Folksinger, actor, and famous snowman Burl Ives was born in Illinois on June 14, 1909. Ives had one of the most recognizable voices of American singers, although I suspect that most people today know him for one TV role more than anything else. But many of us, like Johnny Cash, learned some of our first songs from Ives.
In the 1930s, Ives became an important figure in the folk-revival movement. After moving to New York City, he worked for progressive causes and performed with musicians that included Pete Seeger, Josh White, Alan Lomax and Lead Belly.
A rift later developed between Ives and Seeger after Ives, accused of being a communist, cooperated with the witch hunt by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952. Ives saved his career as others who stood up for the First Amendment suffered. Seeger compared him to a “common stool pigeon.” But Ives and Seeger eventually reconciled decades later.
Ives recorded a number of successful albums and helped popularize songs like “Blue Tail Fly” and “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” Growing up, my family welcomed Christmas every year with Ives’ interpretation of Christmas folk songs on the record album Christmas Eve (1957).
Many associate Ives with Christmas for another reason. He provided the voice for the narrator Sam the Snowman in the 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer holiday TV special. Ives also developed a career as an actor, including roles in films like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Big Country (1958).
Throughout it all was his wonderful voice. The warmth of his tone made every song welcoming and familiar.
Below, Ives appears on Johnny Cash’s television show. After performing by himself, Ives is joined by Cash to sit down, tell some stories, and sing some folk songs. Cash introduces the songs by noting how he learned some of his first songs and chords by listening to Ives.
Ives, who was a pipe and cigar smoker, died from complications related to oral cancer on April 14, 1995.
What is your favorite Burl Ives recording? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On September 29 in 1907, Orvon Grover Autry was born in north Texas, although he eventually would become better-known as the singing cowboy Gene Autry. Autry’s career spanned radio, television, movies, and records — including the 1934-1953 TV series The Gene Autry Show.
Autry had a number of hit songs, including his biggest hit, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” But it was “Back in the Saddle Again” that became his signature song. Below, he sings the song in the 1941 movie Back in the Saddle.
Those too young to remember Autry’s TV show may remember him as the founder and owner of the Angels baseball team from 1961-1997, which started out as the Los Angeles Angels and then became the California Angels, and now we call the team the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Back when his run on his TV show was ending, though, on October 4, 1953 he appeared on the TV show What’s My Line? where a blindfolded celebrity panel asked questions and tried to guess the name of the person in their presence. Using a heavily disguised voice, he manages to fool the panel . . . for awhile.
Gene Autry rode off into the sunset for the final time on October 2, 1998. Photo of the Gene Autry Show via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.
The most famous reindeer of all first appeared in a 1939 coloring booklet entitled “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” written by Robert L. May. May’s creation of Rudolph is a fascinating story of how a down-on-his-luck catalog copy writer came to create a tale that would inspire one of the most covered holiday songs as well as one of the best Christmas TV specials.
The Creation of Rudolph
The retailer Montgomery Ward commissioned this coloring book for something to give out for free as a marketing tool. As May tells it, in January 1939 he was 35 years old and in debt with an ill wife, and his dreams of being a writer had been reduced to being a catalog copy writer in Chicago.
So, May was not in a very festive mood when he was commissioned to write the book. But May’s department head thought the company could save money by creating its own promotional coloring book instead of ordering them from others. He suggested some type of animal story.
That night, May began to focus on a reindeer story because his daughter Barbara loved deer at the zoo. He also thought of his own lot in life, and then began to try to come up with an underdog story.
After May came up with the idea for a reindeer with a red nose, May’s boss nixed the idea. But May went ahead and had someone create artwork of his idea, and May’s boss began to warm to the concept.
May, who considered several names for his reindeer, continued writing into the summer. After May’s wife died that summer, May’s boss offered to let someone else finish the story, but May now felt he needed this scrappy reindeer to help him through his own tough time. By the end of August, May finished the rhyming story, reading it first to his daughter Barbara and her grandparents.
How Rudolph Became the Most Famous Reindeer of All
Within a decade, the story and the book illustrated by Denver Gillen would become more famous than any retailer could have imagined. And in the spirit of Christmas, the head of Montgomery Ward, Sewell Aver, did something that is hard to imagine today. After the book became popular, the company gave the rights to the story to the employee who created it, Robert May.
May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks turned the story into the classic song we know. And then cowboy crooner Gene Autry made the song a bona fide hit in 1949.
Although Autry reportedly did not like the song at first, his wife convinced him to record it. The recording became one of the best selling records of all time. Here is Autry singing the song live several years later in 1953, where you can see the audience knows all the words too.
Other Versions of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Because “Rudolph” is often seen as a kids’ song and not a religious song, through the years performers have not been shy about having fun with interpreting the song in quirky ways. For example, here is Jack Johnson’s version.
Destiny’s Child also recorded the song, but the video is no longer available on YouTube. There also is a quirky interpretation from Jewel and Nedra Carroll. Also, there is a nice guitar instrumental by Tommy Emmanuel and John Knowles.
Even Tiny Tim has a version.
In addition to the unusual versions, several artists have made popular rock interpretations, such as this one by The Jackson 5 from 1970.
The Crystals made a famous version for the most famous rock Christmas album of all time, A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector (1963). And our most-famous Christmas singer, Bing Crosby, eventually sang the song too, although reportedly he had rejected the idea of recording it before Autry made it a hit. Unlike Crosby’s somber “White Christmas,” his “Rudolph” swings. Crosby also eventually performed an excellent version with Ella Fitzgerald.
Finally, Regis Philbin recorded a version of the song. He also made a video featuring an animated version of himself and an appearance by an animated Donald Trump. The video, though, is no longer available on YouTube.
There seems to be a version for every taste, ensuring that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer will go down in history.
The 1964 TV Special Version
Of course, there also is the classic 1964 TV special, which first aired on NBC on December 6, 1964. That show was scored by May’s brother-in-law and the song’s composer Johnny Marks, who also wrote “Holly Jolly Christmas.”
That is another story. But the TV special did create another classic version of the song by Burl Ives, who played the snowman. This version may be the one you are most likely to hear today.
May’s Reward
As for Rudolph’s creator Robert May, he once noted that his reward “is knowing every year, when Christmas rolls around” Rudolph brings a message about a “loser” using a handicap to find happiness, a story enjoyed by millions both young and old.
Deep down we are all underdogs, so may the new year bring you many moments of shouting out with glee.
What is your favorite version of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer? Leave your two cents in the comments.
The song “The Little Drummer Boy,” written in 1941, led to a classic 1960s TV holiday special as well as some iconic versions of the song.
This post examines the TV special and the story behind the song, “The Little Drummer Boy.” The TV show The Little Drummer Boy (1968) was always one of my favorite Christmas specials. The holiday special was a Rankin/Bass production that featured two Hollywood legends, with actress Greer Garson narrating the special and actor Jose Ferrer providing the voice for one of the characters. Yet, unlike other TV specials, it is no longer shown on network TV and has been relegated to ABC Family since 2006.
A Darker Holiday Classic
Part of the reason The Little Drummer Boy may not be as beloved as other specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) is that except for the title song, the music is not as memorable as it is in some other shows. But the main reason the show is the poor step-brother of Christmas specials is that the story of the angry little boy Aaron was darker than many other annual Christmas specials.
The darkness is first found in the song “The Little Drummer Boy,” which has a melancholy sound around the rhythm of the drum. The title makes it sound like a happy song, and nothing sad really happens in the song, but there is a sad aspect of the story.
Unlike many other Christmas songs about the joy and miracle of Christ’s birth, “The Little Drummer Boy” humanizes the baby Jesus, connecting him to other smiling babies. This reminder of the human aspect of the baby foreshadows the human suffering he would find at Calgary.
The TV show further reminds us of the future suffering by featuring the boy’s lamb facing death before being “resurrected.” Few Christmas songs and specials capture the suffering and death aspect of the Christ story. They instead focus on the joy of birth along with other seasonal reminders like bells and elves. And as a kid, who wants to be taught a lesson at Christmas about hate and love?
When I started writing this post, the entire episode was available on YouTube but it has since been taken down. Instead, here is the end of the show:
The Creators of the TV Special
New Yorker Romeo Muller wrote the screenplay that Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass made into The Little Drummer Boy TV special. Muller also wrote the screenplays for such holiday TV classics as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (1970), and Frosty the Snowman (1969).
Like The Little Drummer Boy, each of Muller’s specials have a sadness underlying the happy endings, giving each a depth and complexity. That depth may help explain why we still return to these shows even as adults. Heck, apparently, Libertarians love “The Little Drummer Boy” holiday special too.
The Song “The Little Drummer Boy”
Regarding the song, American composer and music teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis wrote the song we know as “The Little Drummer Boy” in 1941, although it was originally known as “Carol of the Drum.” There are a number of good versions. On YouTube you can find a variety of covers ranging from a version by Jimi Hendrix to one by Faith Hill to Grace Jones performing for Pee Wee Herman.
Surprisingly, though, there are not as many recent classic versions as there are for some other Christmas songs, perhaps because “The Little Drummer Boy” is more religious than some of the other holiday songs. Still, Bob Seger recorded a memorable version for the original A Very Special Christmas album, and below he performs the song in concert.
More recently, Justin Bieber and Busta Rhymes created a version of “Little Drummer Boy” that at least some think is one of the worst Christmas recordings of all time. But the kids seem to like it. You may judge for yourself.
The Crosby-Bowie Version of “The Little Drummer Boy”
But perhaps the most famous version is from another TV show, Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas (1977). When David Bowie, who was a fan of Bing Crosby was asked to sing ‘The Little Drummer Boy,” he was not happy because he did not think the song suited his voice. So, songwriters Buz Kohan, Larry Grossman, and Ian Frasier wrote “Peace on Earth” to go with the song as a counterpoint melody.
We are drawn to this Bowie-Crosby version because of the odd pairing of singers. Also, during a still tumultuous time following the divisions created by Watergate and the Vietnam War, the nation found a healing plea from two people of vastly different generations singing about “Peace on Earth.”
But we stay and return again and again to this version simply because it is a beautiful rendition of the song.
Crosby and Bowie recorded their version in a TV studio in September 1977, but Crosby never got to see the reaction to the duet. Between the recording and the first broadcast of the special on November 30, 1977, Crosby had died on October 14.
Finally, the Bowie-Crosby version is so iconic and well-loved, that when Will Ferrell (as David Bowie) and John C. Reilly (as Bing Crosby) tackled a reenactment for Funny or Die, they kept the humor subtle and played much of the segment straight. Thus, they created a humorous segment that also is a tribute to the classic duet, to the holiday, and to the meaning of Katherine Kennicott Davis’s song. Pa rum a-pum pum pum.
Perhaps the song and TV special will forever carry a melancholy aura of Christmas. With a song written during a time World War II was spreading, and with an American TV special that first aired the year Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were killed, our memories of the song and TV show will always tie it to a dark time. Yet, the song has always also provided some hope. Recognizing some of the challenges of faith and the depression many face at Christmas time, the song and special allow a child, and a smile, to give us a simple gift.
Happy holidays! What is your favorite version of “The Little Drummer Boy”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Test your knowledge of the classic songs appearing in movies and holiday television specials with these ten questions (plus a bonus question). How well do you know your Christmas music? Answers and videos of all the songs appear at the end with your score.
(1963). And our most-famous Christmas singer, Bing Crosby, eventually sang the song too, although reportedly he had rejected the idea of recording it before Autry made it a hit. Unlike Crosby’s somber “White Christmas,”
album, and below he performs the song in concert.
