Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

Back when my father was a boy, the list of celebrities that a kid could look up to were pretty much limited to baseball players and cowboys. Although Roy Rogers would later call himself "King Of The Cowboys", the most popular and versatile of the silver screen western heroes was Gene Autry.

Gene Autry

Owner of one of the more diverse and busiest resumes in entertainment history, Autry, along with his successes in radio, movies, television, and live appearances, made a whopping 640 recordings, including more than 300 songs written or co-written by him. His records have sold more than 100 million copies and he was awarded more than a dozen gold and platinum records, including the first record ever certified gold. ("That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine", later recorded by The Everly Brothers.) While such sales numbers are not unheard of today, it's worth remembering that we're partially talking about sales of 78 rpm singles, back when few homes had a phonograph. In that light, Autry's record sales were truly phenomenal.

His classic Christmas and children's records "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)" and "Peter Cottontail" are among Gene's best known recordings. Today's feature song, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", is the second all-time best selling Christmas single, with sales in excess of 30 million. The all-time leader is still, after all these years, "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby.

Now, I will turn the story over to the pages of "Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry", written by Holly George-Warren, who relates the story of the recording of "Rudolph" in detail, and does it much better than I could in summary.

An original Columbia 78 from 1949.

Gene's session on June 27, 1949, yielded the most enduring hit of his entire career. The success of "Here Comes Santa Claus" had begged a follow-up. Submissions arrived over the transom from numerous eager songwriters, including one tuneful narrative based on a 1939 poem popularized by the Montgomery Ward stores. The story of an outcast reindeer whose "difference" ultimately helped him save Santa's threatened sleigh ride, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was written by veteran composer Johnny Marks. His brother-in-law, copywriter Robert L. May, originally had penned the verse for the department store's annual holiday booklet giveaway, a practice discontinued in 1947. The copyright became May's, who got the poem published as an illustrated children's book that sold one hundred thousand copies. May then permitted Marks to use the story for a composition. "I thought about it for a while and sat down to write a song about it," Marks related. "That song was easily one of the worst songs ever written. Then about a year later I was walking down the street when a new melody came to me. It's the only time that ever happened, and I have to admit, it's a great melody." Marks sent a demonstration recording to RCA Victor recording artist Perry Como, but the pop singer turned it down when the composer wouldn't allow him to change any lyrics. Marks later confessed to Gene that it had been rejected by Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore as well.

The 78's picture sleeve.

Over the years, Gene always told the story that he didn't care for the song either, but that Gene's wife, Ina, had heard Marks's demo acetate and, enchanted by the "Ugly Duckling" theme, had encouraged him to record it. It became widely acknowledged that if not for Ina, there would be no "Rudolph" by Gene Autry. But according to Carl Cotner's widow, Juanita, Marks originally contacted Carl, who was Gene's musical director and "wanted Carl to talk Gene into (recording it)... Johnny Marks had said, 'I'll give you a piece of the action if you will do it,' and Carl said, 'Well, I don't want that,'... which was not a good business decision, but that was Carl. Carl had told Gene, 'I think it's a good song for you,' and Carl did the arrangement. When working out the material for the session, Gene said, 'How about that song that you're so crazy about?' They threw it up on the stand, and did it in one take. Later, a publicity man put it out that it was Ina that talked Gene into it."

Now, go pour yourself a good sized mug of something festive and enjoy Gene Autry's original 1949 recording of "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer". Sing along if you want. It'll take you right back to your childhood.

So, with that under way, I'm going to tell you that Tommy Emmanuel just might be the World's Best Acoustic Guitarist.

Tommy Emmanuel

There, I've said it. I know there are plenty of excellent, even mind-blowing acoustic guitarists out there; some already famous, many who are unknown, who might qualify for that accolade. Both Phil Keaggy and Leo Kottke come to mind. But Tommy Emmanuel is the guy that some of the best guitarists on the planet say they want to sound like. Welsh guitar master Dave Edmunds even told me so face-to-face back in 2002. I think that says a lot.

Two-time Grammy nominee Tommy Emmanuel is one of Australia’s most respected musicians. The legendary guitarist has a professional career that spans five decades and continues to intersect with some of the finest musicians throughout the world. A household name in his native Australia, Tommy has garnered hundreds of thousands of loyal fans worldwide. Tommy’s technique, which he calls simply 'finger style', is akin to playing guitar the way a pianist plays piano, using all ten fingers. Rather than using a whole band for melody, rhythm, bass, and drum parts, Tommy plays all that and more on one guitar. Guitar legend Chet Atkins was one of the first to inspire Emmanuel to try this "fingerpicker" style as a child. Decades later, Atkins himself became one of Emmanuel’s biggest fans.

It's fairly easy for solo acoustic guitar recordings to sound a bit thin. But Tommy's recordings always sound crisp, clear, full and just plain fantastic. His albums fit into a rare category of music that is very nice to have playing as pleasant background while you're doing something else around the house. But when you take the time to sit down and really listen to what is being played, you will discover performances of staggering skill, present humanity and impish humor.

Tommy is no flash-in-the-pan newbie who rushes a holiday record out before their 3rd proper release has dropped. For this one, like all of his recordings, a lot of obvious care and thought was put into crafting it. Here's Tommy's instrumental rendition of "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer". This is the sort of Christmas music I can really get behind. Enjoy!

You can find Tommy Emmanuel's recordings on Amazon. Tommy has at least a dozen albums worth of great music available, and all of them come highly recommended. For starters, I'd recommend "The Mystery" and "Little By Little". If you like acoustic music half as much as I do, then you're in for a real treat.

While there are over 60 albums by Gene Autry available, there is no reason to go any further than this excellent anthology, unless you're a rabid collector of Cowboy memorabilia. It has every song on it by Gene that the casual collector could ever want. The book, "Public Cowboy No.1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry", is available in an affordable paperback edition.

I'd also like to wish all of our readers and Facebook friends a very Merry Christmas, and best wishes for a fantastic 2014! See ya next week with one last Kool Kover for the year!