Little Drummer Boy - The REAL History!

[JSngry]

http://musicyouwont.blogspot.com/2006/12/c...rummer-boy.html

The opener:

So, I'll bet you thought (as so many of us did) that The Little Drummer Boy was written and first recorded in 1958 by Harry Simeone and that it's one of the few almost-brand-new traditional carols. Let's see what Wikipedia has to say:

"The Little Drummer Boy" is a Christmas song from 1958 (words and music by Katherine K. Davis, Henry Onorati and Harry Simeone). The best-known and most standard version is by the Harry Simeone Chorale. It is also known as "Carol of the Drum".

This would be news to Katherine K. Davis, who wrote the song in 1941 under that latter title (Carol of the Drum). Here's a photo of the original manuscript in the Wellesley College Music Library Special Collections. Debate continues to this day whether or not Drum really was a "freely transcribed" Czech carol. Don't ask me.

It goes on.

And don't worry, it's an old post, and any links to sound files lead nowhere. I checked.

Edited December 11, 2008 by JSngry

[DukeCity]

Hmm...I thought Joe Satriani wrote it.

[BruceH]

I thought it was written by Satan.