I love the song, and it has a fascinating background. Harry Simeone didn’t write it, and one could debate whether he even really did much along the lines of arranging “his” version of it. The song was originally titled “The Carol of the Drum,” and was written by Katherine K. Davis in 1941. She claimed that she transcribed it loosely from a traditional Czech carol, although whatever that original carol may have been, it has never been identified. It was intended to be performed by chorales, without any instrumental accompaniment. It was published as sheet music, but wasn’t recorded until 1952 by the von Trapp Family Singers (the same ones upon whom The Sound of Music was based). This is an a capella version, with a much faster tempo than what most people are used to.
It then caught the attention of Jack Halloran, who re-arranged it and recorded it with his Jack Halloran Singers for what was intended to be their 1957 Christmas album for Dot Records, but it wasn’t completed in time and wasn’t released until the following year. The biggest difference between Halloran’s composition and the one released by the von Trapps is that this version has the same, slower tempo that most everyone is used to. It’s extremely similar to what Harry Simeone would later release. (It was also recorded and released by at least two different choral groups–The Testor Chorus and the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir–but their arrangements are a good deal different than Halloran’s and don’t seem to play into what later went on with Simeone.)
Halloran’s recording caught the attention of Henry Onorati, a Dot Records producer, who brought it to the attention of his friend, Harry Simeone. Onorati encouraged Simeone to get the jump on Halloran and release it before Halloran’s record could come out. Simeone had a contract with 20th Century Fox Records to release a Christmas album. He took Halloran’s arrangement, made some minor changes (most noteworthy being the addition of finger cymbals, changing the line “the ox and *** kept time” to “the ox and lamb kept time,” and retitling it to “The Little Drummer Boy”…oh, and giving writing/composition credit to himself, Onorati and Davis) and recorded it, going so far as to apparently hire the exact same singers Halloran had used. Simeone managed to get his album out before Halloran’s could hit, and it became a huge success.
Simeone’s huge success then caught the attention of Davis, who filed a lawsuit that was settled out of court in 1960. I thought I’d read before that Halloran also sued, but I couldn’t find any reference to that. If I remember right, Davis received royalties on Simeone’s version (and all the other versions that have been recorded since), while Halloran got the shaft.
