Here Comes Santa Claus

Gene Autry got the idea riding his horse in the 1946 Santa Claus Lane Parade in Hollywood, where the children along the route kept calling out the title phrase. He wrote the words, his publishing manager Oakley Haldeman the music, and the original Columbia label credits a third writer, Harriet Melka. Johnny Bond made the demo, using ice cubes for sleigh bells, which led to real sleigh bells on Autry’s record, cut in Hollywood on August 28, 1947; it was a top-five country and top-ten pop hit that fall. The song mixes Santa with the religious side of the holiday, ending on peace on earth and giving thanks. Autry sang it in the 1949 film The Cowboy and the Indians and recorded it twice more, in 1953 and in 1957, and Doris Day, Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters and Elvis Presley all covered it.