Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

J. Fred Coots

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General Info

Year: 1934 /
Duration:
Difficulty: III (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Alfred Publishing
Cost: Score and Parts – Out of print.

For availability information, see Discussion tab, above.

Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
D-flat Piccolo
Flute
Oboe
Bassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Bass Saxophone
Cornets Solo-I-II-III
B-flat Trumpet I-II
E-flat Horn or Alto I-II-III-IV
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion

(percussion detail desired)

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a Christmas song. It was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie, and was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934.

In 1934 when Gillespie brought him the lyrics to Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Coots came up with the skeleton of the music in just ten minutes. Coots took the song to his publisher, Leo Feist Inc., who liked it but thought it was "a kids' song" and didn't expect too much from it. Coots offered the song to Eddie Cantor who used it on his radio show that November and it became an instant hit. The morning after the radio show there were orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music and by Christmas sales had passed 400,000.

- Program Note from Wikipedia

Media

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Flint (Mich.) Concert Band (Bruce Nieuwenhuis, conductor) – 15 December 2016
Belleville (Ill.) Community Band (Kerry Welker, conductor) – 9 December 2015

Works for Winds by This Composer

Beautiful Lady in Blue, A (1935)
Falling in Love with You (1930)
I Still Get a Thrill (1930)
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (arr. Tatgenhorst) (1934/2006)
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (arr. Yoder) (1934)
Sons o' Guns

Resources

Coots, J.; Yoder, P.; Gillespie, H. (1934). Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town [score]. Leo Feist: New York.
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Wikipedia Accessed 23 December 2015