Santa Claus is Coming to Town (song)

"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (sometimes with "Coming" changed to "Comin' ") is a Christmas song written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie, and first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934. It became an instant hit with orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music the next day and more than 400,000 copies sold by Christmas. It is often used to tell children that Santa Claus knows when they've been bad or good and that they should be good.

The song was so popular that Rankin/Bass adapted it as an animated TV special in 1970. The song itself has been recorded hundreds of times, the most popular versions include those by the Andrews Sisters with Bing Crosby, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra, Cyndi Lauper with Frank Sinatra in an electronically enhanced duet (Sinatra also sang this solo), the Beach Boys, the Pointer Sisters (covering a Phil Spector-produced version by the Ronettes), Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and Rachel Crow. A version sung by Mariah Carey was included as a bonus feature in the 2005 DVD release of the Rankin/Bass special.

Lyrics[]

Appearances in Christmas specials[]

• Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
• The Liberace Show: "Christmas Show" (1953)
• Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank (1957)
• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet :"A Piano for the Fraternity" (1960)
• The Bell Telephone Hour: "A Trip to Christmas" (1961)
• An Old-Time Country Christmas (1969)
• Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1970)
• M*A*S*H: "Dear Dad" (1972)
• Perry Como's Winter Show (1974)
• The Carpenters: A Christmas Portrait (1978)
• Christmas Evil (1980)
• M*A*S*H: "Death Takes a Holiday" (1980)
• A Christmas Story (1983)
• The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries: "The Nutcracker Scoob" (1984)
• The Facts of Life: "Christmas Baby" (1985)
• Moonlighting: "'Twas the Episode Before Christmas" (1985)
• Remington Steele: "Dancer, Prancer, Donner and Steele" (1985)
• A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) - The Muppets watch an old home movie of their younger selves singing the song. Unfortunately, due to Henson only securing the music rights for television, the US video releases of the special cut the song out.
• It's Garry Shandling's Show: "It's Garry Shandling's Christmas Show" (1987)
• Scrooged (1988)
• Day by Day: "Merry Kristin" (1988)
• Home Alone (1990)
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: "Deck the Halls" (1990)
• Dolly Parton's Christmas at Home (1990)
• It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (1992)
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1992)
• Holiday Greetings from the Ed Sullivan Show (1992)
• Only Fools and Horses: "Mother Nature's Son" (1992)
• The Santa Clause (1994) - Alvin and the Chipmunks' cover was used.
• Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
• Mixed Nuts (1994)
• Ally McBeal: "Silver Bells" (1997)
• I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998)
• The Practice: "State of Mind" (1998)
• That 70s Show: "The Best Christmas Ever" (1998)
• Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999) - Sung by Goofy and later by Max in the segment "A Very Goofy Christmas".
• Futurama: "Xmas Story" (1999) - Everybody celebrates by singing a parody of the song called "Santa Claus is Gunning You Down".
• Gilmore Girls: "Forgiveness and Stuff" (2000)
• The King of Queens: "Ovary Action" (2001)
• The Santa Clause 2 (2002) - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles' version was heard in the opening sequence, while Steve Tyrell's version was heard as the last song in its end credits.
• Elf (2003)
• The OC: "The Best Chrismukkah Ever" (2003)
• Surviving Christmas (2004)
• The Polar Express (2004) - The first half of the Frank Sinatra-covered version starts playing on the loudspeakers when Santa opens the doors at the annual pre-launch celebration. However, the song is edited and slowed down on the chorus part in order to get the important moment for Hero Boy.
• Grey's Anatomy: "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" (2005)
• The Basil Brush Show: "Santa Brush" (2005)
• Fred Claus (2007)
• Four Christmases (2008)
• A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008)
• Merry Madagascar (2009) - King Julien retitles the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Madagascar", and changes "good" in the line "So be good for goodness sake" to "bad".
• Nativity! (2009)
• Arthur Christmas (2011) - Covered by Justin Bieber with elements of "ABC" and "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5.
  • Brief portions are heard in the background in the opening scene. It cuts out when the clock tolls.
  • The full version (used as the main music) is heard over the first half of the second set of the closing credits sequence.
• Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas (2011) - Santa sings the song while referring to himself in first person.
• Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice (2011)
• A Fairly Odd Christmas (2012) - Rachel Crowe's performance appears as background music as Timmy takes charge of Santa's workshop in the film's climax.
• The Grinch (2018) - In the nighttime ice maze scene, when the camera shows the maze's centerpiece, the ice sculpture of Santa Claus, the choir, which is incorporated into Danny Elfman's score, sings the title.
• Red One (2024) - Mariah Carey
• Carry-On (2024) - Bruce Springsteen

Album releases[]

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