Harry Simeone - "The Little Drummer Boy"

"The Little Drummer Boy"

When the Twentieth-Century Fox Records label contracted Simeone to make a Christmas album in 1958, he assembled a group he called "The Harry Simeone Chorale" and searched for recording material. After being introduced to an obscure song by friend and credited song co-author Henry Onorati titled "Carol of the Drum," Simeone changed the title to "The Little Drummer Boy" and recorded it under that title for his album Sing We Now of Christmas. He received joint authorship-and-composition credit for the album, although he did not actually write or compose the song. The single "The Little Drummer Boy" quickly became extremely popular and scored on the U.S. music charts from 1958 to 1962. The Simeone Chorale had another Christmas success during 1962, with their rendition of the then-new song "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

In 1960, Simeone joined a revived half-hour version of The Kate Smith Show on CBS television, produced by Smith's long-time manager, Ted Collins. Though the program had good reviews, audience levels lagged at an early evening time, and the show was cancelled after some six months on the air.

In the same year, 1960, Simeone organized another group which he called "The Harry Simeone Songsters," whose style he made similar to that of the Ray Conniff Singers. That year, under his direction, the Songsters produced a baseball-oriented song in 1960 called "It's a Beautiful Day for a Ballgame." The song is on one of the Baseball's Greatest Hits CDs and is still played at major league baseball parks.

In 1964, Simeone signed with Kapp Records. In the next year, 1965, he recorded a new version of "The Little Drummer Boy" for his album O' Bambino - The Little Drummer Boy.