Song of the Week 22: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

What a hoot! Our version of this song is a mash-up of “Honky Tonk,” the 1956 instrumental hit by Bill Doggett, and the original 1951 recording by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters.

It was written by Mason City, Iowa’s Meredith Willson prior to his Broadway and motion picture success with “The Music Man.” For that musical he also wrote “‘Til There Was You” which the Beatles recorded on their first album. (In fact, Paul McCartney’s MPL Communications owns the publishing to all of Willson’s catalogue, including “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.”)

No doubt every boy of that era could identify with wanting “... a pair of Hopalong (Cassidy) boots and a (cap) pistol that shoots …” Today the song still ranks in the Top 20 on Billboard magazine’s Holiday Top 100 chart.

“Honky Tonk, Parts 1 & 2,” of course, is one of the biggest-selling instrumentals of all time. I was privileged to hear organist Bill Doggett perform it at the Pittsford Tavern outside Rochester, New York and to chat with saxophonist (and co-writer) Clifford Scott at a performance in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. The iconic guitar part originally was played by Billy Butler.