The Little Drummer Boy

This article is about the Christmas song. For the 1968 stop-motion animated TV special, see The Little Drummer Boy (TV special).

"Little Drummer Boy" redirects here. For other uses, see Little Drummer Boy (disambiguation).

"The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941.^[1] First recorded in 1951 by the Austrian Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale; the Simeone version was re-released successfully for several years, and the song has been recorded many times since.^[2]

In the lyrics, the singer relates how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the Nativity of Jesus. Without a gift for the Infant, the little drummer boy played his drum with approval from Jesus's mother, Mary, recalling, "I played my best for him" and "He smiled at me". The story of a drummer at the manger is not from the Bible.^[3]

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 (1958-12-19)
Genre	Christmas pop
Length	3:03
Label	20th Fox
Songwriter(s)	Harry Simeone Katherine Kennicott Davis Henry Onorati

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.

Renditions

"The Little Drummer Boy" has been recorded by many artists:^[15]

• Ray Conniff as the lead song on his 1962 album We Wish You a Merry Christmas.^[16]
• Bert Kaempfert as the lead song on his 1963 album Christmas Wonderland.^[17]
• Frank Sinatra covered the song on the 1964 album 12 Songs of Christmas.^[18]
• In Spain, the song "El tamborilero" is associated with Raphael, who sang it for the first time in 1965 for a TVE Christmas special.^[19]
• Vince Guaraldi as the 3rd track, titled “My Little Drum”, on his 1965 album A Charlie Brown Christmas.
• Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, whose version got to No. 13 in the UK charts at Christmas 1972^[20]
• Jazz/funk musician Stix Hooper, drummer and percussionist for the group The Crusaders, who recorded the song in 1979 as the final track on The World Within, his first album as a lead artist.^[21]
• Pop group Boney M., who recorded a version of the song for their 1981 Christmas Album. The single peaked at No. 20 in Germany.^[22]
• Also in 1981, a pop punk/hard rock version served as the final track on Joan Jett and the Blackhearts's album I Love Rock 'n Roll. Jett's version includes a return of the traditional lyrics of "ass and lamb" instead of "ox and lamb", and another line, traditionally "Mary nodded", is rendered in apparent nonsense words. Besides these and a climactic electric guitar breakdown, the song is otherwise performed fairly earnestly.^[23]
• A duet by the unusual pairing of Bing Crosby and David Bowie on Crosby's final holiday TV special (Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, 1977) as a medley titled "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy". In 1982 it reached No. 3 on the UK chart.^[24]
• Bob Seger did a version of the song in 1987 as part of the holiday compilation album A Very Special Christmas.
• The Dandy Warhols released their psychedelic rock version in 1994 as a double single.^[25]
• Jars of Clay included a version of the song on its 1995 EP Drummer Boy. The band recorded another version of the song on its 2007 album Christmas Songs.
• Ringo Starr included a version of the song on his 1999 holiday album I Wanna Be Santa Claus.^[26]
• Terry Wogan and Aled Jones recorded a cover of the 1977 David Bowie/Bing Crosby duet, "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy"; after a brief campaign amongst listeners of BBC Radio 2 instigated by Chris Evans to get the song released in support of the Children in Need charity, it was released as a single on 8 December 2008, reaching No. 3 in the UK Top 40 singles chart.^[27]
• Norwegian electronic musician Hans-Peter Lindstrøm recorded a 42-minute version of the song in 2009. In 2019, The Guardian placed it at number 20 on their list of the 50 greatest Christmas songs.^[28]
• Justin Bieber released a version of the song, simply named "Drummer Boy", with Busta Rhymes on his 2011 Christmas album, Under the Mistletoe, adding rap verses. The song is listed among the Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 Songs chart by Billboard.^[29]
• The cast of Glee recorded a version that rose to number 31 on Billboard's Holiday Digital Songs chart in 2011.^[30]
• Pentatonix released it as a digital single, in 2013, which both debuted and peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.^[31][32]
• The band For King & Country recorded a popular version of the song in which they featured on their 2017 live album Christmas: Live from Phoenix, as well as a studio version of the song from their 2020 album A Drummer Boy Christmas, which was nominated and won a GMA Dove Award for Christmas / Special Event Album of the Year.^[33]

References

1. Boughton, Harrison Charles (1977). Katherine K. Davis: life and work (thesis). University of Missouri.
2. Leigh, Spencer (5 March 2005). "Harry Simeone Populariser of 'The Little Drummer Boy'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 27 November 2019. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
3. "Is the little drummer boy in the Bible?". Got Questions?. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
4. Crawford, Deanne. "The Little Drummer Boy: A Christmas Unit Study". Our Homeschool Forum. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
5. "Wellesley Faculty Experts Provide Historical Context for Christmas Carols for WGBH, U.S. Postal Service". Wellesley College. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
6. "Image of original manuscript in Wellesley College Library". Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
7. Cummings, Robert. Katherine K. Davis biography at AllMusic
8. "Scan of published sheet music". Photos1.blogger.com. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
9. Anonymous, "20th Fox set with 1st Disk Releases". Billboard, April 21, 1958.
10. "The Little Drummer Boy by The Harry Simeone Chorale Songfacts". Songfacts.com. 11 September 1977. Archived from the original on 25 November 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
11. Estrella, E. (8 February 2019). "How the 'Little Drummer Boy' Christmas Carol Came to Be".
12. Colin Larkin, ed. (2002). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Fifties Music (Third ed.). Virgin Books. p. 394. ISBN 1-85227-937-0.
13. Ankeny, Jason. Harry Simeone Chorale Biography at AllMusic
14. Record catalogue number: KL-1450, Track 1, Length 3:18.
15. Jan M. Ziolkowski. "The Little Drummer Boy and The Juggler of Notre Dame". Open Book Publishers. doi:10.11647/OBP.0173.0212. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
16. "We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Ray Conniff and The Singers: MP3 Downloads". Amazon. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
17. Christmas Wonderland, Bert Kaempfert at AllMusic
18. "Variety". Variety. 7 October 1964.^{[title missing]}
19. "Desvelado el 'secreto' mejor guardado de Raphael sobre 'El Tamborilero', oculto durante cinco décadas". Cadena COPE (in Spanish). 24 November 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
20. The Top 20 Book, Tony Jasper, ISBN 0-7137-2036-0
21. Stix Hooper – The World Within at AllMusic
22. "Offizielle Deutsche Charts".^{[title missing]}
23. https://genius.com/Joan-jett-and-the-blackhearts-little-drummer-boy-lyrics
24. Zaleski, Annie (30 November 2017). "When David Bowie and Bing Crosby Rang in the Holidays". Ultimate Classic Rock. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
25. The Dandy Warhols – The Little Drummer Boy at Discogs (list of releases)
26. "Ringo Starr I Wanna Be Santa Claus (Mercuruy)". AustinChronicle.com. 24 December 1999. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
27. "Bandaged: The Album".
28. "The 50 greatest Christmas songs – ranked!". The Guardian. 5 December 2019.
29. "Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 Songs". Billboard. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
30. "Glee Cast Chart History (Holiday Digital Song Sales)". Billboard. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
31. "Pentatonix Chart History (Holiday 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
32. "Top 100 Songs". Rolling Stone. 5 August 2021. Archived from the original on 31 December 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
33. "2021 Winners | The 52nd Annual GMA Dove Awards". Retrieved 6 December 2021.