Art Mooney Orchestra With Barry Gordon Nuttin for Christmas

BARRY GORDON
WITH ART MOONEY

Nuttin' For Christmas

Saint Nick's tedious yearly routine of '...makin' a list and checkin' it twice...' to '...discover out who'southward naughty or nice' (as suggested in songwriters John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," a seasonal standard since its debut in the mid-1930s) brought attending, if only marginally, to the idea of excluding a portion of the world's children from receiving presents each year, thus lightening the load of Santa's regularly-scheduled simply hotly-debated global commitment. This concept of punishing juvenile miscreants at Christmastime was further explored in 1956 by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett, the composers of "Nuttin' For Christmas," a vocal intended every bit a humorous novelty (that withal loosely borrowed from part of the tune of "Vive La Compagnie," a French song from the 19th century). All the same if someone unfamiliar with any recorded version happened to read the lyrics ('...Mommy and Daddy are mad...I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas, 'crusade I ain't been nuttin' only bad!'), he or she might be appalled that a child would admit to such shenanigans: 'I put a tack on instructor'southward chair....I tied a knot in Susie'southward hair...I hid a frog in sister's bed...I broke my BAT on Johnny'southward Caput' (harmless plenty pranks, I suppose...except for that last ane). Several versions of the song were released in belatedly '56, five of which reached the sales charts, four of them playing the "cuteness" angle to the hilt so equally not to deter sales while the fifth embraced the song'southward darker implication.

Art Mooney, a saxophonist from Lowell, Massachusetts who organized his first band in Detroit around 1936, put his career on hold to serve his country during World State of war II, then started a new band in 1945 that, at various times, featured singers Fran Warren and Jane Morgan, vocal groups The Galli Sisters and The Iv Clovers, country vocalist Tex Fletcher and others. Signed to MGM Records, after a couple of years he jumped on the nostalgia bandwagon (a tendency initiated by Ted Weems' chart-topping 1947 reissue of the 14-year-sometime "Heartaches"). Art hit number ane in early 1948 with "I'thou Looking Over a Four Foliage Clover," revivng a late-1920s tune made popular past Nick Lucas, whose banjo style was replicated in Mooney's striking by Mike Pingitore (whose offset-paw feel included a run as Paul Whiteman's banjoist during the '20s). Two more remakes, both top ten hits in '48, made Mooney 1 of the acknowledged acts of the year. "Baby Confront" (a '20s tune used as the theme for the 1933 moving-picture show with the aforementioned championship starring Barbara Stanwyck) and the mid-'30s standard "Blueish Bird of Happiness" had purposely quondam-fashioned arrangements; the latter carol even featured a schmaltzy spoken interlude past Art himself. For several years after, Mooney was a reliable hitmaker for MGM. He too recorded a serial of Vogue "Motion-picture show Record" 78s that accept been favorites of collectors for decades.

Barry Gordon, coincidentally, was born in Massachusetts in 1948 during 37-year-old bandleader Mooney'due south heyday. His family moved from the Boston area to Albany, New York when Barry was a baby and at the age of three the tyke charmed listeners of Ted Mack'south Apprentice Hour radio series, thus launching one of the longest showbiz careers on the books. In 1955 he crossed paths with Mooney, whose "Love-Babe" (from the war movie Battle Cry), a chant heard during Regular army marches, had just become Art'south showtime top 10 hit in nearly vii years. They recorded "Nuttin' For Christmas," with six-year-old Barry'south innocent (and somewhat indecipherable) reading of the lyrics ('I did a trip the light fantastic toe on Mommy'southward plants...filled that sugar bowl with ants...'). Released in November, it got the leap on several embrace versions.

Columbia released a "Children's Series" version ("(I'm Gettin')" added to the title) by x-twelvemonth-old Ricky Zahnd (with Tony Mottola's orchestra and an adult chorus, The Blue Jeaners, giving the vocal a cartoonish feel). Male monarch Records' entry (respelled "Nuttin For Xmas") came from eight-twelvemonth-quondam Joe Ward, a regular panelist on NBC's Juvenile Jury hosted past Jack Barry. The more experienced Ward (his grandfather, Joe, Sr., had performed in Vaudeville) delivered his lines in a puckish mode, resulting in more of a "tough-child" sound; lines like 'I made Tommy eat a problems...bought some gum with a penny slug...' came across with "juvenuile delinquent" overtones and each time he said the song's oft-repeated line "Somebody snitched on me," you believed he wanted to get revenge on the little rat (Johnny? Tommy? Susie? Sister? Teacher?). These 3 recordings competed for airtime with an adults-passing-every bit-kids rendition by The Fontane Sisters. All four versions were in the top 40 past Christmas, with the Gordon/Mooney version leading them all in the top ten.

Ane other version, by pessimistic parodist Stan Freberg ("vocal with Burglar" backed by Baton May's orchestra), hit the charts in '55. Stan's delivery was tongue-in-cheek, with a snarky, high-pitched tone and pauses in unusual places...in other words, your usual Freberg record. At the terminate, burglar Daws Butler comes downwards the chimney to steal the silverware, in cahoots with the child, who gets a cut of the proceeds...and the ii sing the chorus together. Not-charting covers include a country retelling by Homer and Jethro from the parents' point-of-view ("Johnny is a little brat...I'm-a gonna tan his hide...') and some other chapter in Eartha Kitt's sultry "Santa Baby" series begun two years earlier ('I'g getting nothin' for Christmas...'cause I didn't wanna be bad'). In 1959, the blandest version was issued on Bigtop by puppets Kenny and Corky, speeded up to sound similar a Chipmunks record...without the humor.

Roofing pop film themes ("Behemothic," "March from the River Kwai and Colonel Bogey") kept Mooney on the charts a few more years. He parted ways with MGM in 1960, then bounced from label to label for awhile, standing to perform in clubs on a regular footing until he retired in the 1980s. Barry Gordon charted again with an early on '56 unmarried backed by Mooney'due south orchestra and The Ray Charles Singers; "Stone Around Mother Goose" consisted of passages from fairy tales ("Mary Had a Fiddling Lamb," "London Span is Falling Down" and "Hickory Dickory Dock") with rock and roll slang ('...the lamb hollered get, go, become!') thrown in for effect. Other MGM singles covered childish topics ("I Tin can't Whistle," "10 Years to Go (3 Feet to Grow, Gee But the Time is Passing Slow, Dejection)") and a '56 seasonal follow-up ("I Like Christmas (I Like It, I Like It)"). On each of these records he sounded about one-half his actual age.

Interim was the preferred career selection, as Barry made his first of hundreds of idiot box and picture show appearances. A small part on an episode of The Danny Thomas Show was followed past a funny bit equally a paperboy in the all-star rock and scroll flick starring Jayne Mansfield, The Girl Can't Help It. A familiar face in the coming years, his resumé includes appearances on The Ann Sothern Prove, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Jerry Lewis one-act Cinderfella and an episode of The Jack Benny Program where he played Jack as a child. As a vocalizer he moved to Era Records in '58, doing teen-oriented cloth starting with "They," but the ix-year-quondam had a hard time pulling it off. Equally he neared his teens in the early '60s, vocals improved noticeably on singles for Mercury ("She'south Got Soul") and Cadence ("Yous Tin can't Lie to a Liar"). Meanwhile, Broadway critics praised his operation in the 1962 phase play A Thousand Clowns. He received a Tony nomination (All-time Operation by a Featured Actor in a Play) and afterwards reprised the part of Jason Robards' son in the 1965 film version.

From 1964 to '66, United Artists Records made missteps in trying to market him as a teen idol with remakes of songs like "Sealed With a Kiss" and "Aye Sir, That's My Babe." Efforts for the Dunhill and ABC labels in '67 and '68 were a different story altogether; as his teens were coming to an end, Barry sounded mature and confident on songs like "Angelica" and his ain limerick, "You Tin can't Love a Child Like a Woman." For all his efforts, Barry's get-go ii MGM singles in the '50s were the only ones to reach the music charts. Acting assignments piled up, though, and included ongoing roles in 3 one-act serial: The New Dick Van Dyke Show from 1973 to '74, Fish (a Barney Miller spinoff starring Abe Vigoda) in 1977 and '78 and Archie Bunker's Place from 1981 to '83. Many movie and TV appearances have kept him busy in a career spanning more 65 years, vii of those equally president of the Screen Actors Order.

"Nuttin' For Christmas," that roughshod-to-be-funny novelty hit from 1955, rears its mischievous head every then often as newer versions are foisted upon the public. An addendum missing from the Art Mooney/Barry Gordon recording can be found in many others: 'Next yr I'll being going straight...side by side year I'll be good, only wait...I'd start at present only it's too belatedly...somebody SNITCHED on me!' And a moral can be found in many recordings besides, one best heeded by kids trying to piece of work the angles: 'And so you meliorate exist proficient, whatsoever you practice...'cause if you're bad, I'1000 alert you lot...you'll get NUTTIN' for Christmas!'

- Michael Jack Kirby

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