LITTLE DRUMMER BOY
“The Little Drummer Boy” (originally known as “Carol of the Drum”) is a popular Christmas song written by the American classical music composer and teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. It was recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family Singers and realised on the choir’s first LP Christmas with the Trapp Family Singers and released as a single (45 rpm). The song was further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale. This version was re-released successfully for several years and the song has been recorded many times since. In the lyrics the singer relates how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the nativity where, without a gift for the infant Jesus, he played his drum with the Virgin Mary’s approval, remembering “I played my best for Him” and “He smiled at me”. (More from Wikipedia)
In addition to Each One Heard in His Own Language, I can probably count the number of choral albums in my collection on one hand, though they include some of my all-time favorites. The album Little Drummer Boy by the Harry Simeone Chorale is one; this is where most people heard one of my favorite Christmas songs, “Little Drummer Boy” for the first time, though the song (originally called “Carol of the Drum” and written in 1941 by Katherine Kennicott Davis) had previously been recorded by the Trapp Family Singers. Then there is Christmas Hymns and Carols by the Robert Shaw Chorale, the Christmas album passed down from my parents that we always played while we decorated the Christmas tree. I finally got a second copy of the album for them – a reissue on Pickwick Records called Joy to the World – when I couldn’t bear the numerous skips any longer, though Mom and Dad still usually got out the old one.
(September 2014)
