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= Frosty the Snowman =
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Introduction
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"Frosty the Snowman" is a popular winter song written by Walter "Jack"
Rollins and Steve Nelson, and first recorded by Gene Autry and the
Cass County Boys in 1950 and later recorded by Jimmy Durante in that
year. It was written after the success of Autry's recording of
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" the previous year. Rollins and Nelson
shopped the new song to Autry, who recorded "Frosty" in search of
another seasonal hit. Like "Rudolph", "Frosty" was subsequently
adapted to other media including a popular television special.
Song
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The song's lyrics describe the adventures of Frosty, a snowman who
comes to life after a group of children place a magical silk hat on
his head. Frosty laughs and plays with the children until the hot sun
threatens to melt him. After leading them through the village streets
and running afoul of a traffic policeman, Frosty says goodbye to the
children, reassuring them, "I'll be back again someday."
It is generally regarded as a Christmas song, although Christmas
itself is never mentioned in the lyrics. The action supposedly takes
place in White Plains, New York, or Armonk, New York; Armonk has a
parade dedicated to Frosty annually.
Covers
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The song was quickly covered by many artists including Jimmy Durante,
Nat King Cole and Guy Lombardo. The versions by Nat King Cole and Guy
Lombardo also reached the American charts. A Phil Spector-produced
1963 cover by The Ronettes is a popular version, featuring in 'Rolling
Stones list of "The Greatest Rock & Roll Christmas Songs".
The song has been covered as an instrumental by the Canadian Brass,
with founder Charles Daellenbach taking on the persona of Frosty, and
repeatedly calling "One more time!" ("You know what happens when
Frosty gets 'hot'"), and then starting to collapse ("I think he's
melting" -- "You 'know' what happens when Frosty gets hot"). It was
also covered by the Hampton String Quartet on their inaugural album,
'What if Mozart Wrote 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. It was
also recorded by American Brass.
The song has also been covered (with lyrics) by the band Cocteau
Twins; the cover was released on their 1993 EP 'Snow'. It was also
covered by the Jackson 5 and appears on the 'Jackson 5 Christmas
Album'.
The song was covered and released as the first single of Tarja
Turunen's third Christmas album and ninth studio album, 'Dark
Christmas'.
Charts
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Chart performance
!Version !Year !Chart !Peak position
|rowspan=2|Gene Autry version |rowspan=2|1950 |US Pop Singles
|align="center"|7
|US Country Singles |align="center"|4
|rowspan=2|Jimmy Durante version |1950 |US Pop Singles
|align="center"|7
|2019 |US 'Rolling Stone' Top 100 |align="center"|44
|Nat King Cole version |1950 |US Pop Singles |align="center"|9
|Guy Lombardo version |1950 |US Pop Singles |align="center"|28
|Perry Como version |1957 |US Pop Singles |align="center"|74
|Jan and Dean version |1963 |US Pop Singles |align="center"|11
|Johnny Mathis version |2003 |US Adult Contemporary
|align="center"|29
|rowspan="3"|Kimberley Locke version |rowspan="3"|2007 |US Hot Adult
Contemporary Tracks |align="center"|1
|Canadian Adult Contemporary |align="center"|40
|Billboard Top AC Songs of 2008 |align="center"|46
|Whitney Wolanin version |2012
Book
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In 1950, Little Golden Books published 'Frosty the Snow Man' as a
children's book, adapted by Annie North Bedford and illustrated by
Corinne Malvern.
1950 short film
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In 1950, the UPA studio brought "Frosty" to life in a three-minute
animated short which appears regularly on WGN-TV. This production
included a bouncy, jazzy 'a cappella' version of the song and a
limited animation style reminiscent of UPA's 'Gerald McBoing-Boing'.
The short, filmed entirely in black-and-white, has been a perennial
WGN-TV Christmas classic, and was broadcast on December 24 and 25,
1955, and every year since, as part of a WGN-TV children's programming
retrospective, along with their two other short Christmas classics,
'Suzy Snowflake' and 'Hardrock, Coco and Joe'. The short had
previously been telecast annually on WGN's 'The Bozo Show', 'Ray
Rayner and His Friends', and 'Garfield Goose', along with its two
other companion cartoons. The three cartoons are also a tradition on
WJAC-TV in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, which not only broadcasts the
cartoons on their station, but also makes them available on their
website.
Adaptations
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In 1969, Rankin/Bass Productions produced a 25-minute television
special, 'Frosty the Snowman', featuring the animation of Japanese
studio Mushi Production, and the voices of comedians Jimmy Durante as
the narrator (who also sings a version of the song), Billy De Wolfe as
Professor Hinkle and Jackie Vernon as Frosty. Paul Frees and June
Foray both also voice characters including Karen and Santa Claus in
this animated special produced and directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. and
Jules Bass and designed by 'Mad' artist Paul Coker.
Retrieved 2012-11-16. This was a story based on the discovery of
Frosty the Snowman.
Three sequels followed:
* 'Frosty's Winter Wonderland' (1976), based upon the song "Winter
Wonderland"
* 'Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July' (1979)
* 'The Legend of Frosty the Snowman' (2005) Bill Fagerbakke took over
as Frosty's voice after Vernon's death.
'Frosty Returns' (1992) is a sequel to the original song, set in a
separate fictional universe from the other specials, with John Goodman
as the voice of Frosty defending the value of snow against Mr.
Twitchell (Brian Doyle-Murray), the maker of a snow-removal spray.
On July 1, 2020, a live-action film adaptation of Frosty the Snowman
was announced to be in development at Warner Bros. and Stampede
Ventures, with Jason Momoa voicing the titular snowman, Jon Berg and
Greg Silverman producing alongside Geoff Johns, Roy Lee and Momoa, and
David Berenbaum writing the screenplay. Following Ray Fisher's
accusation of mistreatment on the set of 'Justice League', Momoa
defended Fisher and claimed that the 'Frosty the Snowman' movie
announcement was made without his permission and accused Warner Bros.
of releasing the story in order to distract from Fisher's comments.
External links
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*[http://toonopedia.com/frosty.htm Frosty the Snowman] at Don
Markstein's Toonopedia.
[https://archive.today/20240527221554/https://www.webcitation.org/6jOu6iRLQ?url=http://toonopedia.com/frosty.htm
Archived] from the original on July 30, 2016.
License
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License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frosty_the_Snowman