Origins and history
The song was originally titled "Carol of the Drum". While speculation has been made that the song is very loosely based on the Czech carol "Hajej, nynej", [4] Claire Fontijn, the chair of the music department at Davis's alma mater Wellesley College claims otherwise. [5]
Inspiration for "The Little Drummer Boy" came to Davis in 1941. "[One day], when she was trying to take a nap, she was obsessed with this song that came into her head and it was supposed to have been inspired by a French song, "Patapan", explained Fontijn. "And then 'patapan' translated in her mind to 'pa-rum-pum-pum', and it took on a rhythm." The result was "The Little Drummer Boy".
Davis's interest was in producing material for amateur and girls' choirs: Her manuscript is set as a chorale, in which the tune is in the soprano melody with alto harmony, tenor and bass parts producing the "drum rhythm" and a keyboard accompaniment "for rehearsal only". It is headed "Czech Carol freely transcribed by K.K.D.", these initials then crossed out and replaced with "C.R.W. Robinson", a name under which Davis sometimes published. [6] [7]
"Carol of the Drum" appealed to the Austrian Trapp Family Singers, who first brought the song to wider prominence when they recorded it for Decca Records in 1951 on their first album for the label. Their version was credited solely to Davis and published by Belwin-Mills. [8]
| "The Little Drummer Boy" | |
|---|---|
 One of US single picture sleeves | |
| Single by Harry Simeone Chorale | |
| B-side | "Die Lorelei" |
| Released | December 19, 1958 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 3:03 |
| Label | 20th Fox |
| Songwriter(s) |
|
In 1957, the song was recorded with an altered arrangement by Jack Halloran for his Jack Halloran Singers on their Dot Records album Christmas Is A-Comin'. This arrangement is the one commonly sung today. [2] However, the recording was not released as a single that year. In response to this, Dot producer Henry Onorati, who left Dot to become the new head of 20th Century-Fox Records in 1958, [9] introduced the song to Harry Simeone. When 20th Century-Fox Records contracted with Simeone to record a Christmas album, Simeone hired many of the same singers who had sung in Halloran's version and made a near-identical recording with his newly created Harry Simeone Chorale. [2] [10] [11] It was released as a single in 1958, [10] and later on the album, Sing We Now of Christmas, later retitled The Little Drummer Boy. The only difference between Simeone's and Halloran's versions was that Simeone's contained finger cymbals, and the song's title had been changed to "The Little Drummer Boy". [2] Simeone and Onorati claimed and received joint composition credits with Davis, [2] although the two did not actually compose or arrange it. [10] [11] Halloran never received a joint writing credit for the song, something his family disagrees with. [10] [11] [12]
The album and the song were an enormous success, [13] with the single scoring in the top 40 of the U.S. music charts from 1958 to 1962. [10] In 1965, Simeone, who had signed with Kapp Records in 1964, re-recorded a new version of the song for his album O' Bambino: The Little Drummer Boy. [14] This version (3:18 play time) was recorded in stereo, had a slightly slower tempo, and contained different-sounding cymbals. Simeone recorded the song a third and final time in 1981 (3:08 play time), for an album, again titled The Little Drummer Boy, on the budget Holiday Records label.
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