Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Haven Gillespie and J. Fred Coots' now-ubiquitous Christmas standard "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" was recorded by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in 1943. It continues to be one of the better-known versions of this holiday classic even to this day. A four bar introduction sets up the melody's first appearance at measure 5. The first sixteen measures are handled by Crosby, with the Sisters providing some simple background accompaniment while the band occasionally interjects in between the holes in the melody. The Sisters take over the melody for the bridge at measure 21, followed by Crosby and one female vocalist duetting over the final A section at measure 29. The female vocal trio takes over melody duties for the second chorus at measure 38, handing things back over to Crosby on the bridge at measure 53. For the final A section at measure 61, Crosby and the Sisters trade the melody back and forth between each other before a Dixieland-style instrumental section takes over at measure 69. The singers return at measure 85 in a similar manner as they did on the second chorus, with the main difference coming from a series of breaks in the instrumental accompaniment at measure 93. A quick tagged ending leads into one final fanfare from the horns to bring the proceedings to a simple but effective conclusion. This arrangement is for jazz big band with male vocal and female vocal trio. Woodwind 1 is on clarinet throughout.