Bruce Springsteen’s Santa Claus Is Coming Got It’s Start in Boston!

Before we share I must ask this question: Did you know that Bruce Springsteen's Santa Claus Is Coming To Town got it's start in Boston?

We'll get the bottom of that in a minute.

As we get get close to the big day, one thing is for sure, holiday music has an affect on all of us. When we first hear it, it may create a little anxiety, reminding us of the all of the hustle and bustle, or the cost, or the travel or the family.

But for me, sometime around or after Thanksgiving, the spirit of the season hits me. The holiday hits turbo charge it.

Christmas morning, I would wake up and see Santa's boot-prints in the snow on our deck. The boot-prints looked oddly like my Dad's duck boot-prints, but I played along.

When my kids were at the right young age of 7 and 5, I pulled the greatest Dad-Santa trick ever. Each Christmas Eve, we'd leave for Rhode Island to celebrate with family. One year, I stayed behind, saying I had to work, and I'll be there in time for dinner.

Then, I went to work. I secretly rented a actual Santa sleigh and had it delivered right into my garage. I filled it with the toys, and wrapped it with flashing Christmas lights.  So that night when we came home from our Christmas dinner, what did eight year old Jordan, and five year old Matthew see? As the electric garage door slowly opened, they witnessed a spectacle of flashing lights, on Santa's sleigh full of toys! As we got out of the car, the kids went running to the sleigh, to find a note from Santa:

"Jordan and Matthew, I was told you BOTH were very good this year. Please watch my sleigh for me. I'll be back later with my reindeer to pick it up. You can have these toys now, and more are coming! Love, Santa."

Now, Matthew who was five, was convinced that HE was the luckiest kid on the planet to get a pre-visit from Santa, himself. Jordan however, was more skeptical. It took much convincing from Matt, that yes in fact, Santa had arrived.

I don't think they remember that magical visit, but I will never forget it.

One of the most played, most popular holiday hits is the LIVE version of Bruce Springsteen's Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. What you may not know, is that it got it's start right here in Boston! The original version came out in 1934, and was covered by dozens of artists over the years. Bruce decided to play it LIVE in 1975 during one of his concerts in New York.

According to faroutmagazine.com:

During his December 12th concert at C.W. Post College in Brooklyn, New York, Springsteen got everyone into the Christmas spirit by unleashing what would become his go-to holiday classic – a rendition of ‘Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town’.

But what most people DON'T know, is reportedly, the FIRST time he played HIS version LIVE, was TEN DAYS BEFORE, here in Boston at the Music Hall! He got such a great response, he played it again at the college show ten days later on December 12.

According to Far Out, Born to Run engineers Jimmy Iovine and Thom Panunzio recorded the December 12 performance. The recording sat unused for over half a decade, eventually making its first appearance on the Sesame Street compilation In Harmony 2 in 1981.

Here's Bruce performing the classic back in 1978 in Houston!

The debate around whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie has been around for years. A simple Google search will yield an obscene amount of articles from a variety of outlets that argue whether it is or isn't a Christmas movie.

Seriously, this debate has been addressed by truly the strangest group of publications you can possibly imagine. They include Yahoo! Entertainment, Parade, Men's Health, The Pioneer Woman (yes, really), The Federalist (not kidding), and -- perhaps most surprising of them all -- Catholic.com.

The debate reached such an intensity that Bruce Willis waded into it. During the 2018 Comedy Central special Roast of Bruce Willis, John McClane, himself, addressed the debate.

"People ask me why I did this roast," began Willis. "Was it because one of the last guys who did it became president? Hell no. Why would I want to be president when I can just keep being Bruce f---in' Willis?"

He continued, "I did this roast for one reason and for one reason only, to settle something once and for all. Now, please, listen very carefully: 'Die Hard' is not a Christmas movie! It's a ---damn Bruce Willis movie. So, yippee ki-yay to all of you motherf---ers."

With that in mind, it’s about time we focus a similar energy on Christmas music.

At this point in the holiday season, there is a good chance you have heard a lot of the same Christmas songs over and over again. (We're looking at you, Mariah Carey!) We have nothing against some of the classics, but variety never hurt anyone.

There are only a handful of days left until Christmas. In the spirit of Die Hard now being widely considered a Christmas movie -- despite the colorful comments of Willis -- consider these five classic rock songs as Christmas songs. Enjoy! (And you're welcome!)

I don’t care if it’s The Byrds cover, I don’t care if it’s The Doobie Brothers cover, “Jesus Is Just Alright” is totally a Christmas song! Its positive message is PERFECT for the holidays!

It's definitely a left-field choice, but this list was meant to be a little weird. Let's put it this way: Think of “Psalm” as the cool, artsy cousin to “Jesus Is The Reason For The Season.” Plus, it truly isn't the holidays without that cool, artsy cousin bringing the strange to your family gathering.

Honestly, the same explanation for "Psalm" can be applied to this track from The Velvet Underground. Also, "Jesus" is almost more prayer than song, and its words could actually help those struggling during the holidays.

Okay...this one might already fall under the classification of a Christmas song, but it doesn’t get nearly enough airplay or attention. At this point, “Mistress For Christmas” should be a holiday standard that everyone knows and loves, but sure, let’s just sing “Jingle Bells” again for the millionth time!

In this stellar ZZ Top track, Jesus is traveling from city to city spreading the magic of the blues, or at least we assume.  Hmmm...traveling from city to city and spreading magic? If that’s not the perfect premise for a Christmas song, we don’t know what is!