J. Fred Coots, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany

"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."

Cafe Songbook Music-Video Cabinet: J. Fred Coots

• For All We Know
  
• You Go To My Head

Research Resources: J. Fred Coots

• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list; awards; hit songs; co-writers)
• Discogs.com (songwriting and arranging credits)
• Indiana University Sheet Music Collection (In Harmony): J. Fred Coots
• Internet Broadway Database (Broadway productions and song credits)
• Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits)
• The New York Times (articles about the songwriter)
• New York Public Library (catalog entries for books, recordings, sheet music, etc.)
• Songwriters Hall of Fame (biography and song list)
• Wikipedia (J. Fred Coots, article)
• ASCAP Biographical Dictionary of Composers, Authors and Publishers, New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (dates, career, shows/movies, songs; 3rd edition, 1966, entry p. 138)
• David Ewen. American Songwriters, 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 abebooks.com (J. Fred Coots entry pp. 106-108).
• Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," Frank Sinatra: mustlikeyou
• Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," Bruce Springsteen: Marc Craenen
• "Doin' the Suzy-Q": petermintunmusic
• "Love Letters in the Sand": adamzanger

Cite this page: J. Fred Coots, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/c_sws/coots_j_fred.html