"Frosty the Snowman" is a popular Christmas song written by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson, and first recorded by

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

and the Cass County Boys in 1950 and later recorded by Jimmy Durante. It was written after the success of Autry's recording of "

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on ...

" 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 A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

Song

A group of children find a hat and place it on Frosty's head. Frosty laughs and plays with the children until the hot sun threatens to melt him. Frosty says goodbye to the children, reassuring them, "I'll be back again someday." It is generally regarded as a Christmas song, and supposedly takes place in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

, or

Armonk, New York Armonk is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of North Castle, located in Westchester County, New York, United States. The corporate headquarters of IBM are located in Armonk. Geography and climate As of the 2010 census, A ...

; Armonk has a parade dedicated to Frosty annually.

Covers

The song has been covered as an instrumental by the

Canadian Brass The Canadian Brass is a Canadian brass quintet formed in 1970 in Toronto, Ontario, by Charles Daellenbach (tuba) and Gene Watts (trombone), with horn player Graeme Page and trumpeters Stuart Laughton and Bill Phillips completing the quintet. ...

, with founder

Charles Daellenbach Conrad Charles Daellenbach C.M. (born July 12, 1945) is an American and CanadianProfile
at Cana ...

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 The Hampton String Quartet or the Hampton Rock String Quartet is a string quartet specializing in rock music and other popular styles using two violins, a viola and a cello. In 1998 they were nominated for a Grammy Award, and as of 2012 they were th ...

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 The Jackson 5 (sometimes stylized as the Jackson 5ive, also known as the Jacksons) are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was founded in 1964 in Gary, Indiana, and for most o ...

and appears on the ''

Jackson 5 Christmas Album ''Jackson 5 Christmas Album'' is the first Christmas album, and fourth studio album, by Motown family quintet the Jackson 5, released on October 15, 1970. Included on the ''Christmas Album'' is the Jacksons' hit single version of "Santa Claus Is ...

''.

Charts

The song was quickly covered by many artists including Jimmy Durante,

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...

and

Guy Lombardo Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo (June 19, 1902 – November 5, 1977) was an Italian-Canadian-American bandleader, violinist, and hydroplane racer. Lombardo formed the Royal Canadians in 1924 with his brothers Carmen, Lebert and Victor, and oth ...

. The versions by

and

also reached the American charts.

Certifications and sales

The Ronettes The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. ...
cover

Book

In 1950,

Little Golden Books Little Golden Books is a series of children's books, published since 1942. ''The Poky Little Puppy'', the eighth release in the series, is the top-selling children's book of all time in the United States.. Many other Little Golden Books have b ...

published ''Frosty the Snow Man'' as a children's book, adapted by

Annie North Bedford Jane Werner Watson, born Elsa Jane Werner (July 11, 1915 – 2004) was an American children's author. She also wrote under the names Elsa Jane Werner Watson, Jane Werner, Annie North Bedford, Monica Hill, Elsa Ruth Nast, W. K. Jasner, and A. N. B ...

and illustrated by

Corinne Malvern Corinne Malvern (December 13, 1901 – November 9, 1956) was an American commercial artist, active as a fashion advertising artist and illustrator of children's books between the early 1930s and her death in 1956. She painted magazine covers an ...

1950 short film

In 1950, the UPA studio brought "Frosty" to life in a three-minute

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

short which appears regularly on

WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...

. This production included a bouncy, jazzy ''

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

'' version of the song and a

limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerci ...

style reminiscent of UPA's ''

Gerald McBoing-Boing ''Gerald McBoing-Boing'' is an animated short film about a little boy who speaks through sound effects instead of spoken words. It was produced by United Productions of America (UPA) and given wide release by Columbia Pictures on November 2, 1950. ...

''. The short, filmed entirely in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

, 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 ''The Bozo Show'' was a locally produced children's television program that aired on WGN-TV in Chicago and nationally on what is now NewsNation. It was based on a children's record-book series, '' Bozo the Clown'' by Capitol Records. The series ...

'', ''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 WJAC-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Johnstown– Altoona– State College market as an affiliate of NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which pro ...

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, Johnstown is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropol ...

, which not only broadcasts the cartoons on their station, but also makes them available on their website.

Adaptations

In 1969, Rankin/Bass Productions produced a 25-minute television special, ''

Frosty the Snowman "Frosty the Snowman" is a popular Christmas 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. It was written after the success of A ...

'', 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 William Andrew Jones (February 18, 1907 – March 5, 1974), better known as Billy De Wolfe, was an American character actor. He was active in films from the mid-1940s until his death in 1974. Early life and early stage career Born William And ...

as Professor Hinkle and Jackie Vernon as Frosty.

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh "Paul" Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986) was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass, and Walt Disney theatrical cartoons during ...

and

June Foray June Foray (born June Lucille Forer; September 18, 1917 – July 26, 2017) was an American voice actress. She was best known as the voice of such animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick, Lucifer from Disney' ...

both also voice characters including Karen and Santa Claus in this animated special produced and directed by

Arthur Rankin Jr. Arthur Gardner Rankin Jr. (July 19, 1924 – January 30, 2014) was an American director, producer and writer, who mostly worked in animation. Co-creator of Rankin/Bass Productions with his friend Jules Bass, he created stop-motion animatio ...

and

Jules Bass Julius Bass (September 16, 1935 – October 25, 2022) was an American director, producer, lyricist, composer, and author. Until 1960, he worked at a New York advertising agency, and then co-founded the film production company Videocraft Interna ...

and designed by Mad artist Paul Coker, Jr.. Retrieved 2012-11-16. This was a story based on the discovery of Frosty the Snowman. Three

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

s followed: * ''

Frosty's Winter Wonderland ''Frosty's Winter Wonderland'' is a 1976 animated Christmas television special and a standalone sequel to the 1969 special '' Frosty the Snowman'', produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and animated by Topcraft. It is the second television special ...

'' (1976), based upon the song "

Winter Wonderland "Winter Wonderland" is a song written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith. Due to its seasonal theme, it is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere. Since its original recording by Richard Himber, ...

" * ''

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July ''Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July'' (titled on-screen as ''Rudolph and Frosty: Christmas in July'', or simply ''Rudolph and Frosty'') is an American-Japanese Christmas/Independence Day television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions ...

'' (1979) * ''

The Legend of Frosty the Snowman ''The Legend of Frosty the Snowman'' is a 2005 direct-to-video animated film produced by Classic Media, Studio B Productions, and Top Draw Animation. The film is narrated by Burt Reynolds and features Bill Fagerbakke as the voice of Frosty the ...

'' (2005)

Bill Fagerbakke William Fagerbakke ( ; born October 4, 1957) is an American actor. He voices Patrick Star in the animated series ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and played Michael "Dauber" Dybinski on the sitcom ''Coach (TV series), Coach''. He also appeared in 12 ep ...

took over as Frosty's voice after Vernon's death. ''

Frosty Returns ''Frosty Returns'' is a 1992 American animated Christmas television special starring the voices of Jonathan Winters as the narrator and John Goodman as Frosty the Snowman. The special was directed by Bill Melendez and Evert Brown and features mus ...

'' (1992) is a sequel to the original song, set in a separate

fictional universe A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may ...

from the other specials, with

John Goodman John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC comedy series ''Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he rec ...

as the voice of a more sardonic Frosty defending the value of snow against Mr. Twitchell (

Brian Doyle-Murray Brian Murray (born October 31, 1945), known professionally by his stage name as Brian Doyle-Murray, is an American actor, voice-actor and screenwriter. He has appeared with his younger brother, actor/comedian Bill Murray, in several movies, i ...

), 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. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

and Stampede Ventures, with

Jason Momoa Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa (; born August 1, 1979) is an American actor. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series '' Baywatch: Hawaii'' (1999–2001), which was followed by portrayals of Ronon Dex on the S ...

voicing the titular snowman, Jon Berg and Greg Silverman producing alongside

Geoff Johns Geoffrey Johns (born January 25, 1973) is an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and film and television producer. Johns's work on the DC Comics characters Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash and Superman, has drawn critical acclaim. He serve ...

Roy Lee Roy Lee (born March 23, 1969) is an American film producer. Lee's production company, Vertigo Entertainment, has a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Early life Lee was born in 1969 at Wyckoff Heights Hospital, in Brooklyn, New York, to Korean p ...

and Momoa, and David Berenbaum writing the screenplay. Following Ray Fisher's accusation of mistreatment on the set of ''

Justice League The Justice League (also known as The Justice League of America) are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). The team was conceived ...

'', 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.

References

External links

Frosty the Snowman
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on July 30, 2016. {{authority control 1910 Fruitgum Company songs 1950 singles 1950 songs American Christmas songs Bing Crosby songs Christmas characters Christmas novelty songs Fictional humanoids Fictional snowmen Gene Autry songs Jan and Dean songs Kimberley Locke songs Nat King Cole songs Songs about fictional male characters Songs written by Walter E. "Jack" Rollins Jimmy Durante songs Guy Lombardo songs The Beach Boys songs The Ronettes songs Song recordings produced by Phil Spector Song recordings with Wall of Sound arrangements Songs written by Steve Nelson (songwriter)