What if you’re a poor little boy and you found yourself at the Nativity of Jesus and you’re in awe of baby Jesus – who’s very cute but please don’t squeeze him – and you’re so poor that you have nothing to offer baby Jesus?
Play your drum for him, said the music composer and teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941 when she wrote The Little Drummer Boy.
The song took off in the 1960s and since then it’s been recorded by a mad number of every recording artists for their Christmas albums. I wanted to list all the big names who recorded this song in this limited space, but then I started to change my mind and could no longer be sure, so I made a survey of our readers for their inputs, and guess what? 79% of you said I should list them!
In the 60s it was recorded by Bing Crosby, Johnny Cash, Marlene Dietrich, The Supremes, Joan Baez, Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Hendrix, and more.
In the 70s: The Jackson 5, The Temptations, Emmylou Harris, a slow decade for our drummer boy, as was the 80s: Ray Charles, Bob Seger, New Kids?
It would pick up again in the 90s and later: Neil Diamond, Alicia Keys, Ringo Starr, The Three Tenors, Destiny’s Child, Whitney Houston, Faith Hill, Justin Bieber and Busta Rhymes, Bob Dylan, and lots more.
The best video I’ve seen of The Little Drummer Boy is the one by Columbia Recording artist Bob Dylan. This one is by Pentatonix and the band’s unique vocals are on ample display. Not to be missed!
I’m sure I’ve missed listing some of your favorite artists who’d recorded the song. Please use the comments section below to train your arrows at me. Aim for the heart.
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