Switched on Pop - Santa Claus is coming to town and stalking America

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

The first time you hear "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," it probably registers as just another cheery holiday standard. But hiding within this seemingly simple song is a remarkable story of American transformation - musical, technological, and social. Each time artists reimagine the song over its 90-year history, they leave an imprint not just of their own style, but of their entire cultural moment. Correction: Last week, we mistakenly credited Jermaine Jackson with playing bass on The Jackson 5’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” The bass on the studio recording was performed by Wilton Felder, a renowned session musician from The Crusaders. Jermaine played bass in live performances. Artists Discussed: Eddie Cantor Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters The Crystals Ella Fitzgerald Fred Astaire The Jackson Five Bruce Springsteen Justin Bieber Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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from the first instant and he has a wea. Good Girl Jasmine Absolute, hypnotica, irresistible. Discover it now and let you involve for its essence. Welcome to Switch, Don Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. And I'm a songwriter, Charlie Harding.

Charlie, this year, is very special. We're doing not one, but two, holiday themed episodes, right? Feeling very cheery, very in the holiday mood. Last week, we were being kind of judgy. Yeah, we were assigning these sleigh bell rankings to the best and the worst of the new holiday releases of 2024. Those songs deserved it.

Today I thought, let's be a little less controversial. Let's be a little more loving. Let's come here to celebrate one of the great holiday songs of all times. Haven't we covered like every holiday song at this point? We've done white Christmas. We've done last Christmas. We've done the peanuts, old soundtrack. We've done the Vince Scaraldi special.

We've done, of course, all I want for Christmas is you. Basically ever here. But Charlie, Christmas songs are like snowflakes. Everyone is completely unique. And so is the song that we're going to put under the microscope today. So you better watch out. You better not cry. Better not pout.

telling you why Santa Claus is coming to town. That is such a good recording. Is that Ella? That's Ella, baby. Ella Fitzgerald. And she is singing Santa Claus is coming to town, a song that was written way back in 1934, and sounds so familiar to us that you might think,

what could there possibly be to learn about this Christmas classic? I'm here to tell you, Charlie, so much. Not only is the origin of this song infinitely more complete, and we could have ever imagined, but the way it's changed over the years tells us not only about the history of music in the United States over the 20th and 21st century, but actually of society and politics itself.

Yes, a Christmas song is all that and more. Where should we start? Let's start at the very beginning. Can I get a snowy urban soundscape please? There we go. It's 1934, 90 years ago. We're in the snow-covered streets of New York city. It used to snow back then, Charlie. I don't know if you, if you were that.

What did ambulance sound like back then? Is that a stray cat? Oh, an ambulance. And a stray cat merged together. I like it. I like it. Okay. And Ace Collins, in his book, Stories Behind the Greatest Hits of Christmas tells us about a key character in the story of the song, Eddie Cantor. Though Eddie Cantor is not a household name today, in 1934, he was the highest paid radio star in the United States. His real name was Isidore Itkowitz, and he was nicknamed Banjo Eyes for his eye-rolling that he would do in his song and dance vaudeville routines. I'm going to start calling you Banjo Eyes.

Eddie Cantor needed a song. He was trying to lift the spirits of his listeners for Christmas in the height of the Great Depression, and so he called one of the biggest Tin Pan Alley music publishers, Leo Feist. Feist in turn calls a lyricist named Haven Gillespie and says, Eddie Cantor, banjoice himself, needs a Christmas song. Okay. Gillespie hops on the subway to the publisher's office and on the way he's writing lyrics out on the back of an envelope, inspired by memories of his mother telling him that Santa

knew when they were sleeping and he knew if they'd been good or bad. It's creepy. I never really thought about this. At Fice Publishing Office, Gillespie meets up with one of the big composers of the day, J. Fred Coutts, who composed over 700 songs over the course of his career. They sit down at the piano and they start setting these lyrics to music. And by the time they're done, they've completed the song that we know today. Santa Claus is coming to town.

Eddie Cantor takes the song and he premieres it at none other than the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Ooh, surefire hit. And it instantly became a hit. Let's hear a little bit of this version, Charles. So you better watch out. You better not try. Better not pout. I'm telling you why Santa Claus is coming to town.

He's making a list and checking it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty and nice. Santa Claus is coming to town. Love that thick Atlantic accent. It's so old-timey. Yeah. Santa Claus is coming. To town.

So theatrical. I love hearing this style of singing because you can tell that Eddie Cantor developed his vocal approach in an era before amplification. This dude is yelling. He is screaming those lyrics, right? I guess that's why it sounds theatrical. Like, in the theater, you have to not see it, you have to project. Exactly. Now, here's a little bit of drama with the story I just told you, Charles.

Because turns out there's a competing narrative here. The very first person to record this song is not, in fact, Eddie Cantor, who I just gave you this whole origin story. It's another star of the era named Harry Riser. A twist. So you better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout.

I'm telling me why. Santa Claus is coming to town. He's making a list. Checking it twice. Going to find out who's naughty and nice. Santa Claus is coming to town. There's a lot to like in this version. We have the...

kind of like something is creeping up on you. Santa Claus is watching. We've got some good sleigh bells going on. There's almost like a train-like rhythm to this song. Dicada, ticada, ticket-da, ticket-da. And perhaps that's because the original lyrics were written while on the subway. It's got that locomotive drive. Tick-da, tic-da, tic-da, tic-da.

But not recorded by the person who wanted the song. How did this all go down? Well, I don't think we'll ever truly know the details behind these competing recordings. So we're looking at a classic, you know, Winklevoss Zuckerberg situation here. What we do know is that within 24 hours of Eddie Cantor's 1934 Thanksgiving Day performance, 500,000 copies of sheet music and 30,000 records were sold. Oh my gosh. That bought a house in Malibu. Before we move on from the original, there's one more important thing we need to address.

which is the lyrics are actually a little different than the version we know and love today. Mainly there's a lot more of them. And they give a different context to this song. The season is near for happiness time. Gotta bring cheer with every last time. Santa Claus is coming to town. I like that the song has the dueling narratives of both.

Lots of money will bring happiness. And if you don't have a lot of happiness, we're going to prove to you that Santa Claus is real, and maybe you'll get a gift too. When you listen to these lyrics especially, it's so clear that the song was written during the Great Depression. Yeah.

The season is near for happiness time. Gotta bring cheer with every last dime. It's like, this song is very aware that people are struggling. Let's keep the home fires burning. Let's give without a pause. Let's prove to those less fortunate that there is a Santa Claus.

These are lyrics that you don't usually hear when this song is performed, but they're so tied to the time and place in which it was written and really directly commenting on the things that people were probably really concerned about in Christmas in 1934. This song uses the anticipation of the holidays as a way to escape the woes of the world. Whenever there's a hugely successful pop song, what happens? We get covers, right? And this song is no exception. There's countless covers of Santa Claus's coming to town. But what's really unique about this one is that all the different covers

really tell you a lot about the time and place in which they were made. For instance, when Bing Crosby and the Andrews sisters cover the song in 1947, it's going to sound a lot different. America is no longer enduring this Great Depression. In fact, they're kind of on a high after emerging victorious from World War II. You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not about I'm telling you why.

Why? Santa Claus is coming to town. Gather around. He's making a list, checking it twice. He's going to find out who's naughty and nice. Santa Claus is coming to time. Bing Crosby sings with a smile. Gather round.

This song is so cheery. There's a lot to love about this version. The Andrews sisters interjecting, why? After Bing Crosby tells them not to pout. Their tight vocal harmonies are spectacular. I also love this background figure. bum bum bum look here are we in

it's a little jazz line cliche it's kind of dark why do we have this descending little chromatic line going on because it's jazzy it's peppy we're celebrating we're swing dancing we won the war and you know what this version doesn't have

lyrics about people struggling how we're going to spend every last dime how we're going to dig deep to get through this Christmas it speaks to this different climate that the song was recorded in. Yeah. And perhaps unsurprisingly, this version of the song becomes the one that will really stay in the public imagination for the next 20 years or so. There's no new verses, no meaningful lyrical changes here, just lyrical omissions.

And that's part of what changes the meaning in addition to all these great little vocal harmony ad libs. Yes. In many ways, the story of the song is of gradual chisling away different parts of Huh. Because even Bing Crosby and the Andrews sisters include this refrain that Eddie Cantor sang. With little tin horns, little toy drums, Rudy Toot Toots and Rumma-Tum-Tum-Tum. Santa Claus is coming to Ta-Tal. Rudy Toot-Toot's.

What is that? Charles, I cannot tell you the answer to that one. But what I can't tell you is this. After the popularity of this version, we get many covers in the same vein, including ones by Gene Autry. You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town. Gotta have a country Christmas. The Ray Kahniff singers.

I love that recording. And the version we kicked off this whole recording with Ele Fitzgerald. You better watch up, you better not cry. Oh. Don't pop telling you what. Whoa. I just came back from a lovely trip. Along the Milky Way

I stopped off of the North Pole to spend a holiday Okay, two things here. First of all, I love when someone takes a novelty song and clearly spends their whole day orchestrating their most sophisticated harmonies into such a silly song. I love that intro.

Second of all, we're getting some new lyrics. I feel like this song has gone from the earthly realm into outer space. I feel like we're in the universe, in the Milky Way. This must be the space age. Are we going to the moon now? It's so funny you say that, Charlie, because these are actually more of the original lyrics.

No. Yeah, from back in 1934. Are you for real? That got cut by Bing Crosby, and then Ella was like, actually, I'm going to put these back in. But probably fitting for that time as we enter the Cold War. Totally.

All of the awareness of space is going on. This recording is from 1960, so I think you're right. Space is on people's mind. So we're going to throw back those lyrics about the Milky Way. Cool. Now it's time to talk about what makes this song so catchy because we've heard all these different versions of it.

And you just said it's like a simple novelty song. It's got this very straightforward melody. I mean, that is like... Norrisary rhyme. All the notes are contiguous, meaning they're right next to each other. All stepwise. Very easy to sing, very easy to play.

Sequences of the same idea just played. Up and down the scale. Which is true of this final phrase as well. What's so cool is that these are all the same interval, a rising third. It's the same little pattern just moving around. But it's a nice break from the stepwise motion that we had had before to have these sort of larger third leaps just to give us a little reprieve. And then we get to the bridge of the song. More stepwise motion, singable, easy.

But here we get these lyrics that have a little bit more of an edge. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. Charlie, is Santa stalking us? This has definitely been using a contemporary thriller, horror kind of thing of like, He knows when you've been sleeping. Don't. Though they have nothing in common musically, in a weird way this reminds me of the police song,

Every Breath You Take. Right. Which is another song that sounds very happy. It's played at tons of weddings, but is actually a song about someone who is obsessed with another person to the point of stalking them for the rest of their life. How do I feel about Santa now? Is there a dark interior to this bright Christmas classic? He knows if you've been bad or good?

I mean, Santa's a little creepy here. You know, though Santa Claus is a religious figure technically, I hear this song is a bit more in the secular holiday. tradition. This is about buying presents making people happy. Yet I feel like this feeling of Santa Claus watching has a bit of a godly like fear of sin, fear of the God who's ever present. I think we're bringing some religious feelings into the song in this moment of like if you want to get your present, he's always watching you. He knows what you're doing. I mean, that's a powerful strain within Christmas lore. Yeah. And in some ways it's appropriate because,

I think so far all the versions of the song we've seen up till this point were in 1960 now with Ella Fitzgerald. They're peppy. They're a little chromatic, but they're relatively conservative in a lot of ways. They're pretty much by the book. They're not ruffling any feathers. But Charlie, it's the start of the 1960s, the decade of upheaval, counterculture, protest, hippies. And after a short break, when we come back to check on this song, everything is about to change. Santa will never be the same.

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It's 1963 and we're going to listen to a recording of Santa Claus is coming to town by The Crystals. an African-American girl group produced by Phil Spector, and this version totally transforms everything we know about this song. This makes it even more holy, I feel like. This is praising Santa as if he is the holy figure that he is. Santa Claus coming to town. It's very gospel. I buy that.

It's also more soulful. It's more Motown. It's more R&B. It's more wall of sound. It's funkier. It's bluesier. And the crux of this to me is, that title phrase, Santa Claus is coming to town. There's two big things that happen here. One,

we are no longer starting that line on the downbeat. Oh, it's anticipated. It's not one, two, three, four, Santa Claus is coming. It's one, two, three, four, one, Santa Claus is coming to town. It's not anticipated, it's delayed. It's delayed, yeah, yeah. It's happening on the second beat of the measure. It's a small change, but it really changes the way we perceive that line, I think. Well, it's like he's coming and crashing into town. You know, it's a little unexpected. It has this syncopated charge. Additionally, they repeat it.

They've taken a little refrain tag and turned it into a proper chorus. Boom, exactly. Oh, Charlie, that's why I love making this show with you. You just get it. You just get it. Yes. Thanks, banjo-wise. Not only has the sound of the song,

change interjected with these strains of various black musical traditions from gospel to soul to Motown. The structure of the song itself has changed. It's not the Tin Pan Alley ABA song form. Right. Where you have these two repeated sections that both end with Santa Claus's coming to town and then a bridge, and then you go back. It's become more of the pop format introduced in the 1960s that still dominates the pop landscape to this day with the most boring name. ever first chorus form another big change here the crystals cut out even more lyrics of the song all those Rudy toot toots from the bin crosbie and Andrews sister version gone oh my favorite parts you know I've always been looking for the key of what is the song where it transitions because

it's not like they are two distinct forms it's really clear that the ABA pinnally form is sort of the architectural building blocks of first chorus form At the end of every A section, you would often get the title line, Santa Claus is coming to town. And what verse chorus does is that it stretches out that little line into its whole new section and gives it the proper place that it deserves, ups the energy. And that's what they're doing here. So this is a really cool example. I don't know if I've heard another Tin Pan Alley song that's been transformed into a sort of contemporary verse chorus song. That's neat.

It all starts with Santa Claus is coming to town. When you turn on the radio and hear a chorus, it's thanks to this recording. We cracked the code. We're uncovering musical history in real time. This is cool. Now I'm arguing that we're not only hearing a different vision of this song, we're hearing kind of a different vision of American society because the 1960s, all these countercultural movements,

they're really articulating a new vision for American identity. And in a way, verse chorus forum is part of that, because verse chorus form is more flexible. personalized it allows you to tell more of a story that's why it's so appealing to the biggest artists of this decade from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez to Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin everyone wants this new form because it really can articulate all the changes and the intricate emotions that they're experiencing yeah it's kind of like what if the song respect was lower just like R-E-S-P-E-C-T and that was it like

it wouldn't have nearly the impact you have to have the full course you got to let that play out. So from 1963 on, there's two competing versions of this song. There's the classic, the Bing Crosby, the Eddie Cantor, Andrews' sister's version, and there's this new version, this Crystal's version with the syncopated repetitive chorus. And seven years later in 1970, I feel like these two visions and these two versions really come to a head because there's two important things that happen in that year with this song. One is there's an animated TV movie called Santa Claus is Coming to Town, which airs over Christmas and is hugely popular and features a version of the song performed by the legendary entertainer Fred Astaire.

Be darn sure that comes snow or high water. Santa Claus is coming to talk. There's the kind of old school original version, and it's competing with the recording by the Jackson Five released the same year that expands on the Crystal's interpretation. He's making a list and checking it twice. How slick is that, Charles? I don't celebrate Jermaine Jackson's bass playing enough, but he transforms that song.

Like, now I really want to dance. Almost has a competing rhythm to the original. It takes the key changes of the crystals version from 1963, the syncopated, repeated chorus, and adds this whole other layer of 70s, funk and soul. I mean, it's wild to think that 1970 sees this very traditional animated Fred Astaire version and this very progressive, forward-looking Jackson-5 version. It's almost like these two artists are asking you to choose, which America do you want to live in? Do you want to live in this backwards-looking golden age, conservative America, or do you want to look forward to this more multicultural, progressive, future-oriented America?

Nate, Santa Claus's Coming Town contains the entire history of recorded popular music. and all of American political nostalgia? Well, we're at this crossroads, Charlie. Let me ask you, what do you think the people want? Santa Claus is coming to town. You think they want Eddie Cantor? This is getting a little too political for me.

I think the people want the music that makes them dance, but they want the feeling of go back to the olden times to the 1950s, unfortunately. I think people want it both ways. That feels like the national mood. Is that what we're talking about? No, we're talking about. about Bruce Springsteen.

In 1975, with help from engineers, Jimmy Iovine and Tom Penunzio, Bruce Springsteen, and the East Street band recorded this song at C.W. Post College in Long Island. Six years later, in 1981, it was released on a Sesame Street compilation album called Harmony 2. And then in 1985 was released as the B-side to My Hometown, a single off Born in the USA. And only in 2002 made the hot singles chart. No way. So now I feel like the song has come full circle in some ways. Bruce Springsteen is using the same musical changes from the crystals and the Jackson Five.

It's got the syncopation. It's got the repeated chorus. But he's also infused it with this kind of down-home working class. grit that is his signature and weirdly harkens back to like the very original recording in 1934 and it's performed at you know this college in long island i don't know there's something very kind of bootstraps about it to me he's like santa claus is coming to town he sees the rusted out mills that we've all been working in and things are hard we've been bored together to sing this song Santa Claus is coming to town well listen to how he starts this tune it's all cold that we're

on the beach. Practicing real hard. Yeah. Clients, you've been rehearsing real hard now. So Santa bring your new saxophone right. Everybody out there been good? Or what? I kind of feel like they recorded this at 3 o'clock in the morning after a little bit too

much eggnog. That's Bruce talking to his longtime sax player, Clarence Clemens, asking, you know, are you going to get a new saxophone from Santa? There's something very intimate and endearing about this recording. It also opens with him saying, like, it's cold outside. The whipping wind, we can, you know, down by the beach, it's not summertime. Yeah, right. It kind of reflects the feelings of the original of like people are feeling a little downtrodden,

maybe not because of the Depression, but simply because of winter. At this point, with the Bruce recording, I feel like the Crystal's Jackson Five version of the song has kind of won out to a degree. Certainly in its musical choices. When Mariah Carey covers the song in 1994 on her Smash Merry Christmas album, she follows in their footsteps. She does the Dada, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da which is from her song. From all I want is Christmas.

Yeah. D-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. That's so funny. She also brings in the 6-8 piano feel that Bruce Springsteen had done, the da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da thing. Yeah. Which itself is sort of like a retro 50s vibe. One of the few contemporary stars to cover the song and buck the trend is none other than Justin Bieber.

The beam. He must be a big fan of Eddie Cantor and Bing Crosby, because here's what he does on his 2011 version. Okay, okay, okay. So we don't have the Crystal's chorus, but we do have the Jackson 5 in the bass, the bum, ba-ba-bum. That sounds almost like, is that like the bass line to ABC?

I want you back. Oh, that's the baseline that I want you back. Yeah, of course. He's making a list. He's checking it twice. He's going to find out. But that's not the baseline that Germain Jackson Jackson Fives version of the song, right?

No. Could you play that one more time, too? He's making a list and checking it. Nope, different thing. Oh, this is a cool cover then. So we have Justin Bieber summoning the Jackson Fives cover, but not through their cover, but rather through another song.

and then playing the original version, this is the multiverse of Santa Claus is coming to town. Like multiple timelines happening all at once. Yes, your analysis further confirms that this song holds all the secrets to the universe. And if you just listen to enough covers, you will hear every possible timeline for the past, present, and future of American popular music. Whoa.

It's all there within Santa Claus's coming to town. I feel like we've been pretty exhaustive here. Yeah. And all that remains. is to pose a question to you, to our listeners, and all the musicians out there thinking about covering this song, when you perform this, whether it's at your holiday party in a nice, light jazz arrangement,

or whether you're belting it out at church in a gospel choir in a crystals-esque arrangement, what do you want to say with this song? What kind of vision for America do you want to convey with this song? Is it Big Brother Santa, or is this Santa who's going to bring cheer? It's going to resolve your depression? Is he going to unite the people? Is it space age Santa?

Is it post-World War II boom time Santa? Is it 60s? Countercultural Santa. There's a lot wrapped up in these choices. Santa Claus is a prism. You can see whatever you want to see. Santa Claus is a prism of American culture. Doesn't quite have the same ring.

Try again next year. This episode was switched on pop was produced by Jay Cassman, engineered by Bill Lance, edited by Art Chung, illustrations by R.R. Scott Lee. Remember it with the Vox Media Podcast Network, production at Vulture, which is part of New York Magazine. You can subscribe at NYUMatic.com slash pod. Find us on social media at Switched on Pop and tell us what is your favorite cover of this song. And here's a little Easter egg. Okay, for anyone who has had the patience or the masochism perhaps to listen through the credits to this point, I want to play you

one version of the song that we haven't mentioned that is my all-time favorite. It's purely instrumental. It's by the great pianist Bill Evans. It's from his album Trio 64. This dude never recorded anything else like this in his career, and yet he has the slickest cover of this song. It's like, what are you doing, Bill? Showing off. So the story of this song is not even close to over. What are your favorite versions? Hit us up at Switch Jump Pop and go to our website, switchonpop.com and sign up for our newsletter. We're blasting this thing out every week. We are back on the horse. We are sharing keen insights from the week's episode and sometimes music we're listening to. It's really fun and it only comes once a week,

so it's not going to sully your inbox. We're going to be back to our regular Tuesday scheduled next week. Until then, thanks for listening.