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Rudolph changed Christmas forever

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, but do you recall the most famous novelty Christmas song of all?

I love novelty Christmas songs from Elmo and Patsy’s “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” to Robert Earl Keene’s “Merry Christmas From the Family.” Even Cheech and Chong’s “Santa Claus and His Old Lady” brings a tear to my eye each year.

In 1949, singing cowboy Gene Autry didn’t much care for novelty Christmas songs or even Christmas songs. He had a cowboy image to maintain and didn’t think it was right.

Long story, short, Gene Autry’s “old lady” convinced him to record Johnny Marks’ “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” It turned out to be one of the best decisions he ever made as it led to the second most played Christmas song behind Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.”

The song went on to change Christmas forever but that’s only part of the story.

The song has its roots during the Great Depression in 1939 and before. A lowly Chicago ad copywriter was tasked with the chore of writing a Christmas story to go into a free handout book for Montgomery Wards’ department store Santa to hand out that year to kids.

May, who grew up under-sized and bullied, wasn’t having a very good year that year. His wife was dying from cancer and May was struggling to provide for his 4-year-old daughter. He soldiered on in true depression-era style.

He came up with a story in poem verse that played off the “Ugly Duckling” theme and made a Christmas-saving hero out of a young reindeer with an unusual nose that made things rough for him. He tried it out on his daughter and perfected it in time for the printers.

It was a huge hit for which May never received anything more than his regular paycheck and an at-a-boy. Nearly a decade later he asked Wards for the rights to the poem with the idea of turning it into a book. It sold well and he turned the success into a company that would occupy him securely for the rest of his life.

May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks talked him into letting him turn the poem into a song. After a tough sell-job on Autry the song was recorded, allegedly in one take. The result was a No. 1 hit in 1949 that spawned a newsreel cartoon, then a television cartoon, thousands of books, novelties, re-recording and on and on.

Though he was Jewish, Marks made his mark in popular music writing Christmas songs. He also penned the hits “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” made famous by Brenda Lee, “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” by Burl Ives and Chuck Berry’s Christmas hit “Run Rudolph Run.”

Yes, Rudolph did run through the decades and his fame made it OK for songwriters and recording artists to take a look at the more whimsical aspects of Christmas. Yes, it even became OK for us to talk about Mommy Kissing Santa in song.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]

 
 
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