In Praise of The Little Drummer Boy

I have a confession to make. I have more than 425 versions of The Little Drummer Boy and each yuletide I gather a few more. Obviously I think it is the best Christmas song ever, and while I know many will disagree, it does not deserve the bad raps it so often gets. Alexandra Petri’s 2015 piece in the Washington Post, “‘Little Drummer Boy,’ the worst holiday song of all” still hurts.

I started my obsession in the days of Napster and soon began distributing CDs to my friends. In a revised version of the accompanying liner notes, I make my case.

The Secret of the Little Drummer Boy

Few Christmas carols are as widely covered as Little Drummer Boy.  From traditional holiday crooners to hard rockers who only know Christmas as the one day the liquor store closes; absolutely, everyone seems to give it a try — Ringo, Abba, Liberace, and Beck. Marlena Dietrich, Emmylou Harris, Etta James, and Jewel.  From the Bert Kaempfert Orchestra to Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Roger Whitaker and the Smurfs. Even Dylan and Captain Kirk have recently taken a stab. And then of course there’s Bing and Bowie: a guy who allegedly abused his kids duetting with a guy who unquestioningly abused his body, channelling the Christmas spirit for us all with this touching tale about a little boy and his drum.

Moreover, the song is recorded in so many styles! From rap to reggae, or soul to salsa,  it has been transformed into every possible musical genre imaginable.  There are of course, the traditional pop orchestral arrangements and choral treatments. But there’s also a cappella, hip-hop, Christian rock, and thrash.  World music, country music, heavy metal, and jazz.  There is even a bona fide karaoke version, although that news should have probably come with a trigger warning. Sorry.

Little Drummer Boy lends itself to live performance as well.  Cyndi Lauper, Bon Jovi,  Jimi Hendrix, and Phish all fit LDB into one of their concerts. Phish can’t even wait for Christmas — they play it midsummer as a July 4th concert’s final encore! And you certainly don’t sense it’s part of the band’s usual playlist, but offered instead as a spontaneous expression of year-long good will, added on the fly, as a wistful flash of Christian charity.  “I’ll do it, if some of you guys’ll sing it too,” says lead singer, Trey Anastasio,, “We won’t worry about it if we screw up the words.” You want to scream, “Just try, ‘Pa rum pa pum pum’!!” but then that’s not at all  in keeping with the Little Drummer Boy’s message of generous good will.

So what is it about the Little Drummer Boy that says, “Sing Me”?  I suggest it’s the song’s potent mixture of the sacred and the profane.  A simple little carol on a drum: a little drum, that most ancient of musical instruments. The instrument that makes our limbic systems throb — hypnotic and entrancing. Pounding the earth. Sometimes by machine, driving us to rave the night away; but used this time unaccompanied, to make an humble offering to the son of God. A tuneful tribute tapped out from boy to baby. By a kid, for a kid. Two legs and four legs, all keeping the beat.  You can just picture the little holy one, nodding in time, simply itching to grab the sticks and add a little riff of his own.

But then, is the little drummer boy’s offering appropriate?  I mean it is a nice gesture and all, but a little ditty as your present to the long-awaited one?  And played on a drum?  Is it really a gift at all?! Novelty song makers run wild with this, reminding us that drums can be random, chaotic, and sometimes just downright noisy. With Ray Stevens it’s the little drummer boy next door, with his newly acquired drum kit, cruelly destroying the peace of Christmas morning.  Alvin of the Chipmunks, uses his drum to disturb Dave’s “very special” Christmas song.  Saturday Night Live’s Mary Katherine Gallagher uses her drum to ruin everyone’s Christmas pageant while making her own joyful noise.  And yet in your heart, you know that Jesus would have forgiven each and every one of them their sin. 

Which brings us back to the sacred and profane.  There is something about the tune that is so ethereal and yet so down to earth at the same time. Natalie Cole manages the Little Drummer Boy in a medley along with Jingle Bell Rock, Winter Wonderland , and I’ll Be Home For Christmas. Could you do that with Silent Night?  Or Good King Wenceslas? And maybe we should also consider the inherent nature of drummers — the enfants terrible of the music world — but also at the mystico/magical centre of any band, keeping in time with Mother Earth. And maybe that’s what the song ultimately does. Vicariously and onomatopoetically, it lets us become the little drummer boy ourselves (or drummer girl, as Alicia Keys reminds us) and make our presence and presents to the Lord. Because we can all tap out a rhythm, can’t we?  We can all share the beat. We can all nod to the message of love. And so this little ditty, Little Drummer Boy, gives each and every one of us all a chance to make a joyful rhythmic noise in praise of the newborn king.  Saints and sinners alike.  On our drums.

Richard Gorrie 2010  [rev 2023]

The 2010 CD “20 Little Drummer Boys” featured 20 of the best versions of LDB and was soon followed by “Who’s That Little Drummer Boy” – a holiday guessing game, “Little Drummer Boy Around The World” – 20 multi-lingual versions, and “Rockin’ Little Drummer Boys 20 Hard Rock and Heavy Metal interpretations.

I have been collecting versions of LDB ever since that time. Each Christmas I treat myself to a couple of new tracks and I graciously receive versions from friends. I have learned that it was first recorded by the Trapp Family Singers. I am overjoyed to see it covered by two of my favourite artists: Bob Dylan and more recently William Shatner, replacing his version of Mr Tambourine Man as my favourite Shatner performance.

Okay, there, I have made my confession. Have another listen.

Or two.

Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum