Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (Bruce Springsteen) – Christmas Countdown No. 7

The showmanship by Bruce and the E Street Band in their version of today’s featured track – Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town is nothing short of pulsating and rousing. It’s not Christmas time until Springsteen says it is! Just listen to the big man – Clarence Clemons hone in on his baritone Santa Claus voice with – ‘You Better Be Good For Goodness Sake‘. That alone shifted my Family’s Christmas spirit levels up another notch as we watched it yesterday morning over breakfast.

Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town doesn’t reference Christian theology, nativity scenes, or biblical themes, which are hallmarks of religious Christmas songs. Instead, it emphasizes Santa, gift-giving, and behavior (“better watch out”), making it part of the more commercial and festive side of the holiday. Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town is one of my favourite secular Christmas songs, and I suspect it holds a special place in my kids’ merry hearts as well. But! Wait for it (drum roll)………., it can’t top their excitement for the song ranked No. 3 in my Christmas countdown, which I’ll be sharing this Sunday.

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The following contain extracts from the Wikipedia reference below:
“Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” is a Christmas song written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and first recorded by Harry Reser and His Orchestra. When it was covered by Eddie Cantor on his radio show in November 1934 it became a hit; within 24 hours, 500,000 copies of sheet music and more than 30,000 records were sold.

The song has been recorded by over 200 artists. The version by Bruce Springsteen was first recorded on December 12, 1975, at C. W. Post College in Brookville, New York. This version borrows the chorus refrain from the 1963 recording by the Crystals. It was first released as a track on the 1981 Sesame Street compilation album, In Harmony 2…Springsteen’s rendition of the song has received radio airplay perennially at Christmastime for years. This version remains a Springsteen concert favorite during the months of November and December (often concluding the show), and the band is among the few that keep it in their roster of songs during the holidays.

[Spoken Intro]
It’s all cold down on the beach
The wind’s whipping down the boardwalk
Hey Band! You guys know what time of year it is?
What time, what? What?
Christmastime!
What? Oh, Christmastime!
You guys, all, you guys all been good and practicing real hard?
Yeah?
Clarence, you been, you been rehearsing real hard now? So Santa’ll bring you a new saxophone?
Everyone out there been good or what?
Aw, that’s not many, not many you guys are in trouble out here

[Chorus, sung]
You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry
You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why –
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice
He’s gonna find out whose naughty or nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

[Verse]
He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
You’d better be good for goodness sake!
You’d better be good for goodness sake!

[Chorus]
Oh you’d better watch out, you’d better not cry
You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why –
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

Ho, ho, ho, ho!

[Saxophone solo]

[Verse]
He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
You’d better be good for goodness sake!
You’d better be good for goodness sake!

[Chorus]
You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry
You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why –
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

To bookend this post I thought it appropriate to point you to how Jordan Peterson might respond to the question – Do You Believe in Santa? (From Dr Beckerwood on Reddit)

I act as if Santa Claus exists.

People have often asked me (especially around this time of year) if I believe in Santa Claus… and I don’t like that question because it’s an attempt to box me up, to put a bow on me in a sense. It’s like, what do you mean, “believe”? We know what Santa looks like. We know what he sounds like. We know how he behaves. We put up pictures and statues of him. We even make offerings to him! Do I believe the man at the mall with the white beard is the one and only Santa? Crowds are addressing him as Santa and he is responding to the name “Santa” and answering AS Santa as such, so some extent at least, he is real. To the degree he is a “good” Santa he is transcending his material substrate to give rebirth to the neurological patterns of the eternal spirit of Santa as it has descended across time. It’s like, is that “real” enough for you? In the Jungian sense you could argue that in that moment he is more real than real.

Look, any smart 11 year old can point out the logistical problems with time zones, flying reindeer, and countless cubic tons of milk and cookies, but, you know, perhaps that’s the wrong level of analysis. When a child sits on Santa’s lap it’s an intimidating thing because Santa is a judge. It’s like, are you on the good list or the naughty list? Because you certainly don’t want to be on the naughty list, that’s for sure, so how about we avoid that; how about we avoid the coal in the stocking? So what do we tell our kids? It’s like, clean up your room! Straighten yourself out and try to be a good person. Then maybe Santa judges you favorably and you get a few decent toys out the deal, eh? I don’t know, maybe Red Dead Redemption 2 or maybe a Hatchimal. But you’re not getting anywhere by stepping up on your soap box and announcing “I’m so smart, I figured out that the physical manifestation of the spirit of giving isn’t real.” I mean, you can think that if you want, but it’s not the proper way of looking at Santa Claus. There’s way, way more to him than that.

And there are actually not a lot of people, percentage-wise, who are ok with saying out loud that they don’t believe in him. Why is that? It feels like a sin to even suggest something like that. On the contrary, people go door to door singing songs about him. So some folks might say he doesn’t exist maybe just because they’re afraid of appearing foolish, but I’m not convinced. It’s like, you know what you truly believe, eh? You’re transparent to yourself? Guess again, sunshine. We act as if Santa Claus exists. And that’s right. That’s true, and it is good. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Merry Christmas Buckos

References:
1. Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town – Wikipedia