Little Saint Nick – Challenge #198

I had planned on writing about the Ten Years After song ‘Love Like A Man’ this week, but since it is Christmas Eve, I am going with ‘Little Saint Nick’ by The Beach Boys.  ‘Little Saint Nick’ was released as a single in 1962 and it came out again in 1963 on The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album.  The single charted #47 in the US, but it peaked at #3 on the Billboard magazine’s special seasonal weekly Christmas Singles chart.  Brian Wilson wrote this song with Michael Love and it was modeled after their song ‘Little Duce Coup’, envisioning Santa’s sleigh as a Nordic Hot Rod, being candy apple red with a 4-speed stick.  In the story, Santa Claus lives way up north, where the air is cold, unlike the California surfer scene that the Beach Boys were used to.  The record includes overdubs of sleigh bells, celeste, triangle and glockenspiel, and it was released on December 9^th, just seventeen days after the assassination of President Kennedy, which helped break the somber mood of the country.  It reached the heavy rotation of playlists on many of the radio stations from coast to coast.

This song was partly inspired by record producer Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift for You album, which was also released in 1963, as Brian was invited to play the piano on the track ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’, but his performance wasn’t used although he was paid scale for his effort.  Brian produced and arranged the rock songs for this Christmas album, leaving it to Dick Reynolds (an arranger for the Four Freshmen) to arrange the 41-piece orchestral backings on the traditional songs to which the Beach Boys applied their vocals to.  The album included just five original songs and the rest of it was filled out with seven traditional Christmas tunes.  Brian Wilson said, “I wrote the lyrics to it while I was out on a date and then I rushed home to finish the music.”  Six months prior to its release, the band had released a song called ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ which some of Little Saint Nick’s rhythm and structure is derived from.  In 1990, Mike Love filed a lawsuit to have his name listed as the co-writer of “Little Saint Nick” since he wasn’t originally credited and now he is.  The “Run run, reindeer” line was basically taken from Chuck Berry’s song ‘Run Rudolph Run’, but it was made more generic, so The Beach Boys could avoid copyright issues like Berry had to deal with costing him to turn over royalties to his song to the creator the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer story.

Ooh
Merry Christmas Saint Nick
Christmas comes this time each year
Ooh, ooh

Well way up North where the air gets cold
There’s a tale about Christmas
That you’ve all been told
And a real famous cat all dressed up in red
And he spends the whole year workin’ out on his sled

It’s the little Saint Nick (little Saint Nick)
It’s the little Saint Nick (little Saint Nick)

Just a little bobsled we call the old Saint Nick
But she’ll walk a toboggan with a four speed stick
She’s candy apple red with a ski for a wheel
And when Santa hits the gas, man, just watch her peel

It’s the little Saint Nick (little Saint Nick)
It’s the little Saint Nick (little Saint Nick)

Run run reindeer
Run run reindeer (whoa)
Run run reindeer
Run run reindeer (he don’t miss no one)

And haulin’ through the snow at a frightening speed
With a half a dozen deer with Rudy to lead
He’s got to wear his goggles ‘cause the snow really flies
And he’s cruisin’ every path with a little surprise

It’s the little Saint Nick (little Saint Nick)
It’s the little Saint Nick (little Saint Nick)

Ooh
Merry Christmas Saint Nick
(Christmas comes this time each year)

Ooh
Merry Christmas Saint Nick
(Christmas comes this time each year)

Ooh
Merry Christmas Saint Nick
(Christmas comes this time each year)

 

The challenge today is to focus on this song and use it for a short story, a piece of flash fiction, or a poem that you can share with the WordPress writing community.  There is no need to stick with this song, as you could write about another Beach Boys song, or any other Christmas song.  You could also write about why Christmas comes this time each year, and how this makes you feel.  You could write Rudy wearing goggles to lead the other reindeer, because, being the first one, he gets more snow in his eyes than the rest of them.  You could write about whether you think the Little Saint Nick is a bobsled or a toboggan.  You could write about how many toys you think that Santa gives out every year.

The whole point of this MM Music challenge is to get you to think, to trigger something so that you can show how creative you are and everyone is welcome to participate.  This challenge is very loose, so pretty much whatever you come up with will be acceptable.  I try to throw some ideas out there for you and if they seem right, then go with it.  You could write about how fast the reindeer can fly while pulling Santa’s sled.  If you know a Christmas story that you would like to share, that would make a good topic for a post.  You could write a post about the North Pole, or about Mrs. Claus baking cookies for the elves.  Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie brings you a dose of fetish, good friends and an incomparable muse and next Friday on December 31 Dylan Hughes will be here with her First Line Friday.  I will be back on Friday, January 7 with another MM Music Challenge where we will discuss the song ‘Love Like A Man’.  You can either create a ping back to this post, or place your link in the comments section below.