We come to the end of our 1940s Christmas music playlist with a 1949 song that's one of the best-known Christmas songs ever: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!"
Gene Autry was the first to record the song on Columbia Records:
Rudolph's rise to fame in the music world parallels his story as the song was rejected all over town until Gene Autry recorded it as an afterthought and next thing you know, Rudolph and his song went down in history!
Rudolph started as an advertising character for Montgomery Ward (a once-mighty chain of department stores) created by Robert L. May in 1939. May's brother in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, adapted he character into the song, which eventually was recorded by Mr. Autry.
The success of that song following Gene's earlier hit "Here Comes Santa Claus" from 1947 established him as the foremost purveyor of Christmas novelty songs. Despite his huge success as as singing cowboy in movies, Gene's most famous these days for those songs.
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| So many versions available for 1950! |
"Rudolph" was so popular during the 1949 holiday season that it seemed like everyone who passed on the song before took a crack at it in 1950!
There's always a twist, though, isn't there? Peruse this ad from the "Billboard" issue of October 1 1949:
That indicates that Eddy Howard had already recorded his version for Mercury Records!
And, indeed, the issue from December 31, 1949 shows it as available on Mercury Record number 5360:
So, unless the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was working for "Billboard" magazine, Eddy's record was released in 1949, despite most sources saying it was 1950.
Let's give it a listen:
Fun effects on that one, but no points for copy editing on the label!
(Don't forget Eddy's recordings of the not-as-successful advertising character "Uncle Mistletoe" and not-as-loveable "Ebenezer Scrooge!")
That "Billboard" blurb also mentioned that "Rudolph" was also available by T. (Ted) Black on Dana Records, so let's listen to that one too:
That's also fun!
So, the moral of the story is that Gene Autry didn't have the only recording of "Rudolph" that was available in 1949, it's just that his was the first and by far the most popular!
We have one more rendition from 1949, this from the "Fibber McGee and Molly" show of December 6 featuring "Teeny" (Marian Jordan) singing with the King's Men:
Those lyrics are so different! Where did they come from? Did Ken Darby of the King's Men do a rewrite?
Incidentally, you may recognize announcer Harlow Wilcox from his similar duties on Basil Rathbone's recording of "A Christmas Carol" from 1942!
A couple of 1950's new recordings of note include Bing Crosby's version on Decca Records:
The way the song is presented plays more like a radio version to me, like an arrangement they would do on Bing's show, but not so much on a record. Unlike Gene Autry's version, it doesn't (teddy) bear up to repeated listening.
But fun to hear Rudolph make a little cameo appearance!
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| Whose nose is redder - Rudolph's or Spike's? |
Another 1950 version of note to me is the one by Spike Jones and his City Slickers on RCA Victor:
Fascinating that Rudolph (himself) sings the whole song in the first person, expanding upon the Bing Crosby version, as if the events were happening in real time!
That's a really cute Rudolph voice. I think it's by Marian Richman, as she's credited with doing Peter Cottontail's voice on Spike's 1951 record of that song and it sounds similar. It's definitely not George Rock as I sometimes see!
Spike's version is also set up like a little audio skit and Spike's writer Eddie Maxwell even gets label credit!
Let's jump ahead to 1960 with one more version that also has a little framing story. It's by the Chipmunks from the Liberty Records LP "Around the World with the Chipmunks" also released as a single:
Rudolph's voice is closing in on the one from the famous Rankin/Bass TV special from 1964!
The original context of this cut was that David Seville and the Chipmunks met Rudolph while visiting the North Pole on their trip around the world. It was later included on the "Christmas with the Chipmunks" LP from 1962 and the countless reissues since.
There have been a zillion other recordings of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," but just like in the movies, Gene Autry always comes out on top!
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