The Beach Boys' 'Little Saint Nick' - Things You Didn't Know About This Christmas Hit!

After getting kicked out of the studio during the sessions for one of the most revered Christmas albums ever, Brian Wilson would create a Christmas classic of his own.

This is the story behind the Christmas hit 'Little Saint Nick' by The Beach Boys.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
After getting kicked out of the studio during the sessions
for one of the most revered Christmas albums ever, Brian
Wilson would create a Christmas classic of his own. This
is the story behind the Christmas hit Little Saint Nick
by the Beach Boys. Behind the Christmas hits with Drew Savage.
I don't think we've referenced any album more than Phil

(00:21):
Spector's A Christmas Gift for You in 1963. It has
been influencing artists ever since its release. In fact, it
started influencing artists before it was even released. Brian Wilson
of the Beach Boys.
Has been described as a Phil Spector acolyte. Spector began
the recording sessions for the album that September, and Wilson

(00:41):
was in attendance. When it came time to record the
Crystal's version of Santa Claus's Coming to Town, Wilson stepped
to the piano and started to play.
1963 was a breakout year for the Beach Boys. Surfin'
Safari was their first top 20 hit on the Billboard
Hot 100 in 1962, but in 1963, they made it
into the top 10 with Surfing USA and Surfer Girl.

(01:05):
B-sides like Little Deuce Coupe and Shut Down were also charting.
Despite that success, if Brian Wilson was the student at
this point, Phil Spector was definitely the teacher, and he
wasn't having any of what Wilson was playing on the
piano that day.
So, after several takes that Spector felt were substandard, he
ordered Wilson off the piano and replaced him with Leon

(01:27):
Russell and Don Randy. Wilson must have been disappointed, but
it doesn't seem like he held a grudge. When asked
in 2006 to name his favorite albums of all time,
Wilson said, the Beatles, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,
Pink Floyd's Dark.
Side of the Moon, and Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift
for You. However Brian was feeling that day in 1963,

(01:49):
it got him focused on the idea of the Beach
Boys doing a Christmas song of their own. That song
would become Little Saint Nick. In the book Becoming the
Beach Boys, Wilson said, quote, I wrote the lyrics to
it while I was out on a date, and then
I rushed home to finish the music. I'm sure his
date was thrilled.
Little Saint Nick was a holiday hot rod song about

(02:10):
Santa's sled, candy apple red with a four-speed stick. The
song's structure is based in part on the hook in
Little Deuce Coupe. The line Run, run, reindeer was a
nod to Chuck Berry's Run Rudolph Run.
The Beach Boys smartly kept the Reindeer's name generic in
their song, while Barry wrote Run Rudolph Run himself, he
was successfully sued by Johnny Marks, who wrote the original

(02:32):
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer song, and was forced to share
songwriting credits and future royalties with Marks. They recorded Little
Saint Nick as a stand-alone single on October 20th, 1963,
at Western Studios in Hollywood.
The B-side was a beautiful a cappella version of the
Lord's Prayer, which is totally worth seeking out. The song

(02:54):
was released December 9th and was just the group's seventh
single to date. It peaked at number 25 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and number 3 on the Billboard Singles
Christmas chart. The success of the song convinced the guys
to do what Spector did and record a whole album
of Christmas music.
They went back into the studio the following June, and

(03:14):
over a period of 12 days, recorded 4 more original
Christmas songs and 7 classics.
Wilson produced and arranged the originals, while Dick Reynolds, an
arranger for the harmony group The Four Freshmen, took the
reins on the classics, arranging the music for a 41
piece orchestra the Beach Boys would sing along to. One
of the classics they recorded was Santa Claus's Coming to Town,

(03:37):
and this time Brian Wilson's piano work was most definitely used.
The result, the Beach Boys' Christmas album. Their 7th album
as a group, hit stores on November 9th and debuted
at number 6 on Billboard's Christmas albums chart. Little Saint
Nick is the very first song on the album. Unfortunately,
it was also one of the songs Mike Love and

(03:59):
Brian Wilson would fight over years later.
The Beach Boys have a complicated history. While Brian is
generally considered the genius behind the music, his cousin Mike
filed several lawsuits over the years seeking songwriting credit he
felt he was owed. In the early 90s, he successfully
gained credit on 35 of the early Beach Boys songs,

(04:19):
including Little Saint Nick. Love has said that he ultimately
blames Wilson's father, Murray, who was the Beach Boys' first manager,
for excluding him in those credits.
Understandably, he still has hard feelings over the fact that
Murray sold the publishing rights to the Beach Boys' catalog
in 1969 at a big discount, without the band's knowledge.

(04:40):
Despite the legal moves leading a lot of Beach Boys
fans to take sides in the fight between Brian and Mike,
Love has said because Murray had passed away, his only
recourse to get the credit he was owed, was to
sue Brian.
In the end, Love won, and he and Brian settled
on a reported payment of $5 million for Love's share
of the royalties. As for Little Saint Nick, the song

(05:02):
about Santa's Hot Rod endures. However, it's one of a
few Christmas hits that doesn't get covered by many other artists.
The Hansen brothers, who had a huge hit with Mbop
in 1997, recorded a version of it for their Christmas album.
Country group Lady A did the same in 2020 for theirs,
but that's about it.
OK, John Denver did it with the Muppets too, but

(05:23):
you get my point. And I think it may be
because Little Saint Nick is so uniquely the Beach Boys,
it's almost impossible for anyone else to duplicate that sound.
The original certainly isn't lacking for airplay. In recent years
it's shown up in everything from Ted Lasso to Coke commercials.
I'm Drew Savage, thank you so much for listening. You
can find me on Instagram at Drew Savage on Air,

(05:45):
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