Santa Claus is Coming to Town (first recordings)

[OrthoFan]

I was surprised to find out that "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" dates from 1934, and was first performed on the Eddie Cantor radio show. I had assumed that the song was much older.

According to the article on Wikipedia, "the earliest known recorded version of the song was performed by George Hall and the Hotel Taft Orchestra (featuring Sonny Schuyler on vocals) in 1934. It was mostly an instrumental except for a 35-second vocal by Schuyler. The version shown in the Variety charts of December 1934 was Harry Reser featuring Tom Stacks on vocal." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clau ... Recordings

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If the recording dates posted on the Discographical Index are correct, The Harry Reser version came first.

Both versions are available online.


Decca 264A -- Recorded 10/24/34
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8P1X39hTk[/youtube]

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Bluebird 5711A -- Recorded 11/13/34
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJK-ATTxsnE[/youtube]

[Valecnik]

Thanks for posting. I prefer the bluebird version for whatever reason....

[OrthoSean]

Here's my version on Banner:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAK_vz_f-Ds[/youtube]

Sean