Originally titled “Carol of the Drum,” this Christmas standard was written in 1941 by an American composer, Katherine Kennicott Davis, who mostly wrote music for the choir at Wellesley College, where she was a student and later a teacher. It’s usually given a somewhat somber treatment, but not by English-born Nigerian Alex Boyé, a onetime boy band singer who converted to Mormonism and now sings with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I think making the drums African elevates this tune to a new level.
The song was written in 1941, but wasn’t committed to vinyl until 1951, when the Trapp Family Singers — yes, the family who inspired the musical — included it on a Christmas album.
It’s popularity took off after 1958, when the Harry Simeone Chorale recorded a version that was released as a single and re-released every year through 1962. It reached the Top 40 each time. Here they are performing it on Ed Sullivan’s show in 1959.
The most famous rendition of this song is probably the duet between Bing Crosby and David Bowie, filmed in 1977 just five weeks before Crosby’s death. I can’t abide it — the cringeworthiness of their banter plays like a Ricky Gervais skit without the laughs — but it’s beloved by many, for reasons I can’t understand. The counter-melody Bowie sings, “Peace on Earth,” was a last-minute composition, written because Bowie refused to perform “Little Drummer Boy.” According to producer Larry Grossman, “He said, ‘I won’t sing that song. I hate that song … I’m doing this show because my mother loves Bing Crosby.’ ”
Vince Guaraldi gave the tune a jazz arrangement made famous by its inclusion on his soundtrack album for “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” but it wasn’t the first time he had recorded it. In 1964 he recorded an LP called “From Both Sides” with Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete that included the song under the Portuguese title “Menino Pequeno Da Bateria.”
