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J. Fred Coots |
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Basic InformationBorn: John Frederick Coots, May 2, 1897, Brooklyn, New York Died: died April 8, 1985 (age 87), New York City Primary songwriting role: composer; also lyricist and pianist Co-writers: Click here to view a database of 45 |
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"Overview and Commentary |
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| Overview | in preparation |
| "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" Daniel Kent "You Know Dancer and Dasher, But Have You Heard of the Writers Behind Your Favorite Christmas Songs" Dish Magazine, Issue 115, February, 2012 |
"Composer and lyricist team J. F. Coots and Haven Gillespie may be well known for having written well over 700 songs in their career, but no one could have guessed that a 'little children’s song' would be their most well remembered creation ever. Gillespie had written the lyrics for the songs several years earlier after hearing his son exclaim excitedly that he was going right to bed because Santa Clause was coming to town. It wasn’t until 1934 Gillespie brought Coots the lyrics. Initially underwhelmed by the simplistic song, Coots came up with the skeleton of the music in just ten minutes. Later when Coots brought the song to his publisher, Leo Feist Inc., they liked it but thought it was a kids' song and didn’t expect too much from it. Little did they know what they had in their hands. Coots offered the song to Eddie Cantor who used it on his radio show that November and it became an instant hit. The morning after the radio show there were orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music, and, by Christmas, sales had passed 400,000.
''Santa Claus is Coming to Town' is not only both Coots and Gillespie’s most famous work it is also both of their most recorded works ever having been covered by acts as far reaching as Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Bing Crosby, Dinah Washington and Alice Cooper." |
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| "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" (Coots' biggest hit, with lyrics by Haven Gillespie, 1934) sung by The Chairman of the Board and The Boss. |
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Frank Sinatra |
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Bruce Springsteen |
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| More songs by J. Fred Coots not found in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook |
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Copyrighted in 1936, "Doin' the Suzy-Q" by J. Fred Coots and Benny Davis," performed here by Peter Mintun, "was the most successful of all the songs in the 27th annual Cotton Club Parade." |
The music for "Love Letters in the Sand" was written by J. Fred Coots and the lyrics by Nick and Charles Kenny in 1931. It became a big hit for Pat Boone--#1 on the Billboard charts for five weeks--in June and July 1957. |
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, New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (dates, career, shows/movies, songs; 3rd edition, 1966, entry p. 138)
, An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary. New York: The H. W. Wilson Co., 1987 (includes 146 bios of composers and lyricists). -- a wide selection of used copies is available at
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Credits(J. Fred Coots page) |
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