Download   Yep, it’s that red-nosed critter again. This tune never goes away and has been done a thousand different ways… maybe more.

Rudolph came into being in a story written for a promotional coloring book for Montgomery Wards stores in 1939.  The writer, Robert May, based it on his own childhood difficulties of being the smallest kid in his class.  He was picked on and taunted and labeled a misfit.  Aren’t children wonderful?  Today we call it “bullying”, but that’s a whole other issue.  It’s ironic that this poor kid grew up to write a tale that delights other children to this day.  You’d have thought that Rudolph would have been some bad hombre who kicked over Christmas trees and terrorized chipmunks.

May’s brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, turned the story into a song and presented it to Gene Autry to record.  The “Singing Cowboy” didn’t want anything to do with it, but his wife convinced him otherwise.  Sometimes it’s a good idea to listen to your wife, guys… actually, most times.  Okay, all the time.  “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” went on to become the second biggest-selling Christmas song of all time.  Can you guess the first?  That one will be the subject of our next blog.