Song of the Day 11/21: Kay Starr, “(Everybody’s Waitin’ For) The Man With the Bag”

Guest post by Nathan Arizona

It shouldn’t be hard to identify “the man with the bag” everybody’s waiting for this time of year. The bag has presents in it. It arrives by way of reindeer.

There’s a song to remind us. If you’re not hearing Kay Starr’s1950 hit recording of “(Everybody’s Waitin’ For) The Man With the Bag” on the radio, a flurry of recent cover versions can clue you in.

Artists from Wynton Marsalis and Seth McFarlane to She & Him and Kristin Chenoweth have recorded it. British popster Jessie J hit the charts with it in 2020. A non-musical Christmas movie with that title is currently being filmed. A white-bearded Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Santa.

But Kay Starr’s original recording set the tone.

As a youngster, Starr kicked off her career when she won a contest by singing and operating a yo-yo at the same time. By 16 she was singing in Bob Crosby’s big band. She was soon fired for being “too earthy,” so she returned to Memphis to finish high school. Diploma in hand, she went back to work and became one of the biggest singing stars of the ’50s

She was Queen of the Jukebox. She played at Harry Truman’s inauguration. Comparisons with the great Dinah Washington were apt. Her biggest hit was “Wheel of Fortune.” “Rock and Roll Waltz” was another smash. She wasn’t a rocker, but her “earthy” blend of pop, jazz, blues and country anticipated the new sound.

Al Staney, one of her six husbands, was a Los Angeles night club owner in 1950. He decided a new Christmas song by his wife would be good publicity for the place. He enlisted the clubs’s piano player, Dudley Brooks, to help him write one. It was about a man with a bag.

Brooks, a rare Black man in the white pop world, later collaborated with Elvis Presley, who also had a few hits.

Wynton Marsalis’ stylish Lincoln Center version features singer Veronica Swift.