The Little Drummer Boy

"Little Drummer Boy" is set around the time of Jesus' birth, when Israel was under Roman rule and the Jews were awaiting a Messiah to deliver them from bondage and become the new King of Israel (however because he didn't fulfill that prophecy, he's not considered the Messiah in Judaism). Unlike most Christmas carols about the Nativity story, such as "The First Noel," "Away In A Manger," "O Come All Ye Faithful," "Silent Night," and "O Holy Night," this one places the emphasis on a different child: the little drummer boy. When he's summoned to honor the newborn king, who lies in a manger in Bethlehem, the poor boy can't afford to buy a gift that's fit for royalty, so he offers his talent instead. He taps out a pa rum pum pum-pum rhythm on his drum, and the baby Jesus smiles. Although there's no such percussion prodigy in the biblical account of the birth, which is detailed in the gospels of Luke and Matthew, the drummer boy's determination to play his best for Jesus exemplifies passages like Colossians 3:23-24, which reads, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men."

This Christmas classic was originally a Czech song that Katherine Kennicott Davis translated to English in 1941. Under the title "Carol Of The Drum," it was covered by the Austrian Trapp Family Singers (of The Sound Of Music fame) a decade later, but a new arrangement titled "The Little Drummer Boy" was popularized by the Harry Simeone Chorale in 1958. Simeone is credited as a songwriter on the track, along with Davis and producer Henry Onorati, but one name that is noticeably absent is Jack Halloran, who actually came up with the arrangement and recorded it a year before Simeone released his version. Dawn Halloran, Jack's daughter, told Songfacts the story: "This song was originally published as 'Carol Of The Drum,' a traditional Czech carol, by Katherine K. Davis. My father, Jack Halloran, arranged it and recorded it under the same title on his 1957 Dot album, Christmas Is A-Comin'. Henry Onorati was a producer for Dot who worked on the project and took the arrangement to Harry Simeone, who had nothing to do with my father's recording. Dot was to put out the single of 'Carol Of The Drum' for the Christmas '57 season, but for unknown reasons did not get it out in time. Meanwhile, Onorati took the arrangement to Simeone, who hired the same singers, re-recorded it adding finger cymbals and cutting a difficult passage just before the last phrase. It was then put out as a single under the title 'Little Drummer Boy,' by Harry Simeone, Katherine K. Davis and Henry Onorati. I've seen the master recording of the song and it pre-dates Simeone's by a year. And for the record, no one else ever arranged 'for' my father. He was the arranger for other artists." Wellesley College, Davis' alma mater, tells a different story about the origin of the classic carol. Claire Fontijn, the chair of the college's music department, said the tune came to Davis on the edge of sleep in 1941. "[One day], when she was trying to take a nap, she was obsessed with this song that came into her head and it was supposed to have been inspired by a French song, 'Patapan,'" Fontijn explained in a 2017 interview. "And then 'patapan' translated in her mind to 'pa-rum-pum-pum,' and it took on a rhythm."

Harry Simeone is a conductor and arranger from Newark, New Jersey. He worked on various Bing Crosby movies and was the conductor for a popular TV show called The Firestone Hour from 1952-1959. The album, released as Sing We Now Of Christmas but re-titled The Little Drummer Boy in 1963, was his first album with a choir.