Are you ready for some Christmas music?

A number of commercial radio stations have “moved up” the beginning of “Christmas music season” this year, to match Sirius XM, which starts streaming its Christmas stations on Nov. 1. 

Shall we go ahead and ease into it with some secular classics?

 

Let’s begin: Who sang “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” best? The tune premiered in 1934 when Eddie Cantor sang it on his national radio show.

 

Co-written by music industry titans J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, the song has been sung by hundreds of artists through the years.

 (Coots above and Gillespie below)

Realizing that everyone is an expert on music, and everyone has an opinion, we’ll look to Justin Curto, an entertainment journalist at New York Magazine, for some objective guidance. 

He has seven top contenders in the “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” sweepstakes. Here we go. 

“If you want a classic take on ‘Santa Claus,’ skip Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, whose suave, steady deliveries don’t add much to a song that should be overflowing with enthusiasm,” Curto opined. “Leave it to Burl Ives instead. The singer best known for ‘A Holly Jolly Christmas’ puts an equally jolly spin on ‘Santa Claus.’”

 

Curto also likes The Crystals’ version of “Santa Claus” – the first group to transform the song into pop music “full of blustery brass and clanging piano. That would’ve meant nothing without the gleeful vocal power of the Crystals. Their performance became the blueprint for ‘Santa Claus’ covers.”

 

The Pointer Sisters’ rendition of the holiday hit “gets messy, but that’s part of the fun when singing Christmas songs…at the office party,” Curto said. “Anita, June and Ruth make it shine with the sort of playful bond only family can bring, belting and whooping with equal power. It sounds like they’ve never had more fun singing together.” 

Dolly Parton gives “Santa Claus” a bit of a country music twist with a fiddle solo from Jimmy Mattingly. The recording is a “true musical encapsulation of holiday cheer,” Curto said.

 

“Is Mariah Carey so good at singing ‘Santa Claus’ because it’s one of the main inspirations for ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’…or is ‘All I Want for Christmas’ so good because Carey conquered ‘Santa Claus?’” 

Curto said: “The central truth is that Carey’s performances of both are bursting at the seams with holiday spirit.”

 

In the final analysis, Curto said: “Anyone can sing ‘Santa Claus,’ but it takes a kid to truly sell the excitement. That’s how the Jackson 5 made one of the song’s definitive performances.” 

“Michael musters all the oomph he can for the chorus, somehow making each one sound bigger than the last. Over a signature Motown groove, these kids could not sound more enthused about all the toys Santa would bring. They sounded like they believed, and for a few minutes, they could make you believe, too.”

 

But the winner is: “Bruce Springsteen. His band’s invigorated 1972 live rendition of ‘Santa Claus’ isn’t just the best version of the song – it’s one of the best examples of why Springsteen and his band are such stellar performers,” Curto wrote. 

“The performance is boisterous, jubilant and just full of life. They take a minute to ease into things before absolutely flooring it after the first verse,” Curto said. “That’s when the tightness of the band is really apparent, from Springsteen’s singing to Clarence Clemons’s all-time sax solo to Roy Battan and Max Weinberg’s integral piano and drum pounding.”

 

“That’d be an alchemical combination for a live take, but what pushes this over the top is how much fun the band is having. Clemons’s Santa Claus laughter is infectious, so much so that, by the end, Springsteen can barely get the words out himself. More than 50 years later, it’s still a heartwarming shot of Christmas spirit like no other.”