Once again, we begin the annual Christmas tradition here on newsfromme.com. It's Mark's Xmas Video Countdown — ten days of holiday songs carefully selected by our judges, all of whom are me. Some of these songs have appeared before on this website and some haven't.
We start with a "haven't" — a "novelty record" as they used to call them. Wikipedia tells us it was written in 1944 by Donald Yetter Gardner, who was teaching music at a public school in Smithtown, New York. They go on to say…
He asked his second grade class what they wanted for Christmas, and noticed that almost all of the students had at least one front tooth missing as they answered in a lisp. Gardner wrote the song in 30 minutes. In a 1995 interview, Gardner said, "I was amazed at the way that silly little song was picked up by the whole country." The song was published in 1948 after an employee of Witmark music company heard Gardner sing it at a music teachers' conference.
"All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" was soon recorded by an awful lot of performers but the top seller was this rendition from Spike Jones and His City Slickers. The gent singing it is George Rock, who was a trumpet player and a vital component of Spike's band. Apologies for the not-great video image…
Among the many other recording artists who took a swing at this one was Danny Kaye, backed up by Patty Andrews…
And even the great Nat King Cole recorded it…
And while we're on the subject, here's a more recent rendition of the tune, courtesy of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy…
…and finally a version by Elmo from Sesame Street and Michael Bublé…
If that's not enough for you, YouTube is filled with videos of the song performed by actual children who are actually missing their two front teeth. But I'll let you find those for yourself if you're interested.