Song of the Day 12/18: Small Town Titans, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”

Small Town Titans are a power trio from that rock hotbed of York, Pa., whose members met at Lebanon Valley College in 2011. In 2018 they released this filthy version of every hard-rock band’s favorite holiday tune, the Grinch’s theme song from the Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” A lot of bands have covered it, but none have surpassed this version for projecting the character’s menace — this is a Grinch you don’t want talking to Cindy Lou Who.

Though Boris Karloff narrated the TV special, which first aired in 1966, the song was performed by long-time soundtrack vocalist Thurl Ravenscroft, a name that sounds like one of Harry Potter’s instructors. He was inadvertently left out of the credits, so many assumed the voice was Karloff’s; Tennessee Ernie Ford was another popular guess. The was eventually rectified and led to Ravenscroft’s posthumous appearance on the Billboard Top 40 when the song, credited to him, made it to No. 32 last December. The tune was written by Broadway composer Albert Hague. The lyrics are by Ted Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss.