Song of the Day 12/16: Louis Armstrong, “Zat You, Santa Claus?”
The music makes it sound more like a Halloween song than a Christmas tune, but it’s a valid question — who’s that at the door so late? It’s a reminder that a fat white guy trying to get into your house in the middle of the night isn’t necessarily St. Nick.
Satchmo recorded this tune in 1953 with the Commanders. Both words and music were credited to someone named Jack Fox, but I suspect this was an alias — he never wrote another song, and the only other time Jack Fox comes up in connection with Armstrong comes years later, when the same name appeared as the byline over an interview with Armstrong in the October 1960 issue of Saga: The Magazine for Men. There is no other record, at least online, of such an individual, but the interview leads me to believe it was someone close to Armstrong himself, perhaps a publicist or agent.
The song made several Christmas collections over the years, but its popularity exploded after 1987, when it was covered by the Buster Poindexter and His Banshees of Blue.
That opened the floodgates — it’s been recorded by nearly three dozen artists since then, by everyone from Smash Mouth to Wynton Marsalis. I’ll spare you the Smash Mouth version. Marsalis recorded it in 2015, with vocals by Renee Marie, in a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert.
I learned something interesting about Armstrong the other day. As a boy of seven he was taken in by a Jewish foster family for a few years, during which time he learned to speak Yiddish fluently. And he wore a Star of David for the rest of his life.
Great song, most people never get the lyrics, heard the original playing in a department store. Smiled a little smile…..