‘Grandma Got Run Over…’ may be the people’s choice

What is the “worst Christmas song” of all time?

Many music historians give the nod to the 1979 novelty tune “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” performed by Dr. Elmo Earl Shropshire and released independently on the record label Elmo & Patsy, which was owned by Elmo Shopshire and his wife at the time, Patsy Trigg.

 

Dr. Elmo

Ray Glier, a freelance writer in Atlanta, commented: “How blasphemous that Grandma has hoof marks on her nightgown…and how uproarious!”

The lyrics tell the story of a family celebrating Christmas Eve, when Grandma got snockered on spiked eggnog. She leaves to retrieve her medications and gets trampled by Santa Claus’ reindeer.

Grandpa shows little concern over his wife’s apparent demise and spends the holiday watching football on television, drinking beer and playing cards with Cousin Mel, while the rest of the family wonders if Grandma’s gifts should be opened or returned?

In the music video, Grandma recovers from the attack and makes a triumphant slide down the chimney…before the family digs into a goose dinner.

Interestingly, the songwriter of “Grandma Got Run Over…” is Randy Brooks, a nephew of the late Foster Brooks, a famous comedian who was nicknamed “the loveable lush.”

Among Randy Brooks’ other noteworthy, tongue-in cheek novelty songs is “Will You Be Ready at the Plate (When Jesus Throws the Ball?).”

 

Dr. Elmo (right) and Randy Brooks

Dr. Elmo Shropshire, who’s now 88, may have been a “one-hit wonder” in the music industry, but he’s an American superstar, according to Glier.

While growing up in Ocala, Fla., Shopshire worked as an exercise rider at a thoroughbred horse farm, managed by his father who was also a trainer.

“One of the horses in the Ocala stable was Needles, a sickly colt that got his name because the vets were always trying to find a remedy for his ailments, which meant shots,” Glier said. “It was 18-year-old Elmo Shropshire who broke Needles as a yearling in 1954, getting the horse to settle down, ease into his powerful frame and learn from a firm hand on the reins.”

 

“In 1956, Needles stormed the grand stage of horse racing, winning the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes, two legs of the hallowed Triple Crown. He finished second to Fabius in the Preakness, which meant he was one position away from claiming the Triple Crown,” Glier said.

 

“Elmo Shopshire graduated from the University of Florida, then went to veterinary school at Auburn (Ala.) University. Dr. Elmo was the racetrack veterinarian at Aqueduct and Belmont Park in New York before moving to San Francisco to open his own hospital, Arguello Pet Hospital.”

His second wife, Pam Wendell, a distance runner, introduced Dr. Elmo to the sport of competitive racing when he was 55. Although he has completed marathons, Dr. Elmo specializes in shorter distances, ranging from 400M to 5K.

 A favorite training ground is Costa Rica, where the jungle humidity is taxing. He is accompanied by Pam, “to make sure I don’t get lost or eaten by a jaguar,” Dr. Elmo adds.

The Shropshires live on a secluded ranch in Novato, Calif., a community in Marin County that borders San Pablo Bay, north of San Francisco.

 

But, every year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, members of the news media come clamoring for interviews and cameo performances. Dr. Elmo gladly obliges, wrote Clark Mason of The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif. Dr. Elmo may schedule up to 20 interviews a day.

The song “Grandma Got Run Over…” made him “a millionaire five times over, something the ebullient Shropshire does not dispute,” Mason said.