Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer ( Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer ) is the title of a Christmas carol based on a coloring book for children by Johnny Marks , which appeared as a single in 1949 in the interpretation of Gene Autry and achieved million seller status. There have been several film adaptations, including a full-length cartoon in 1998.
History of origin
In 1939 the coloring book for children was created, which became a bestseller in the USA and on whose basic story the Christmas carol, which was later recorded, is based.
coloring book
The Chicago department store chain Montgomery Ward sold coloring books from various third-party book publishers. In 1939, the company management decided to publish its own coloring book for cost reasons, which was intended as an advertising campaign. The author Robert Lewis May, familiar with nursery rhymes, who had been an ad writer for the department store chain since 1935, chose the story of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer after discarding first names such as Reginald (too British) or Rollo (too cheerful). The department store management was initially concerned about the attribute "red-nosed", as this could be associated with alcoholism and alcoholics and therefore not exactly suitable for Christmas. When the last doubts were dispelled, the story of the young reindeer with the shining nose, beaten out of the species, was published for Christmas 1939 and sold 2.4 million times, and by 1946 over six million copies of this coloring book were sold on the counter. May had only received a lump sum for his idea, the copyright was registered for the department store chain. May only received copyright in May 1947.
Christmas carol
The idea for the song based on the coloring book stayed in the family, because songwriter Johnny Marks was May's brother-in-law. At first, the search for an interpreter was difficult, because the Christmas carol experienced Bing Crosby ( White Christmas ) declined. The text was too young for him. May's narration follows the ugly duckling principle , because the reindeer Rudolph is harassed by those around him because he has a glowing red nose. Ultimately, however, he made a career for Santa Claus as a fog light . What remained was Gene Autry, known as the "singing cowboy". The single Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer / If It Doesn't Snow on Christmas (Columbia # 38610) was recorded at the end of the recording session on June 27, 1949 in just one take with the Pinafores as choir and with orchestral accompaniment. Columbia released the song on September 1, 1949; he reached the charts on December 3, 1949, in which he was only number one for a week after Christmas, on January 7, 1950. The great success, wrote author Johnny Marks in 1950, was the perfect implementation of the composition by Autry, "with a 2-bar intro, solo choir in tempo, 32-bar instrumental part, and the final chorus with the pinafores." Marks later confessed that he had actually left Autry only ink stains on a piece of paper, which Autry was able to translate musically and lyrically into sound. Many great songs were only unsuccessful because of incorrect implementation.
Rudolph was the biggest hit of the Columbia (South Carolina) label, with sales of 2 million copies in 1949 and a total of 8 million copies. Gene Autry's official website is even assuming 12 million copies. A gold record for this was only awarded on November 10, 1968.
statistics
According to the ASCAP, more than 100 compositions are registered for John Marks, and the imaginative Christmas carol has been officially covered over 180 times based on Autry's original. Autry always liked to fall back on this genre of music, because he has released a total of 27 Christmas carols at Columbia (they are available on a CD released on September 21, 2004).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Garson Design via Rudolph
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 56
- ^ Official website of Gene Autry
- ^ ASCAP entry by Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer