the song little drummer boy was written in 1941 by catherine davis she was writing this as a school girl. in 1941 no folks did not like this song and the first words of this song has never appeared at all the notes said she was born in new york usa but never became remembered as a song writer. the song was not first recorded until 1951 by a black gosbel and him singing group formed by jester hairston called the trapp family singers i do not know if that recording still made the low end of the usa charts but a more remembered recording in 1957 did make the charts and got to number 23. they were called harry simone choral thay were formed back in 1956 by jack gildening and retitled the song to what we know it now. this single is the first camershow recording of this song. meanwhile jester hairston who formed the trapp family singers who first recorded the first vesion of the song also wrote mary's boy child in 1956 for harry belafonte that recording also features the same singers who first recorded drummer boy 6 years earlier. this song has been covered by lots of artists over the years. one is by ray coniff singers that got to number 9 in britain in 1958 this recording entered the charts at the same time when harry simone had the usa recording. simone did enter the british charts at the same time as well. other people who did this song in 1976 david bowie recorded the song peace on earth with bing crosby this got to number 5 in the charts just before he died in the next year. i have sung this song many times for this time of year at school the first show i did for christmas was the baby jesus in 1987 i sung on the line purup but did not sing the verses. some of the songs were originals but often we wood put a cover of an old christmas song in that show. in 1998 when i moved to england i did another recording of this song for redhill colege for the blind and have still got it to this day. the backing of this recording is a soundalikehow this song came to us in the 1950s. but with the new 1980s synth sound.