Harry Moses Simeone (May 9, 1910 – February 22, 2005) was an American music arranger, conductor and composer who popularized the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

song "

The Little Drummer Boy "The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 19 ...

", for which he received co-writing credit.

Early years

Simeone was born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area. He grew up listening to stars performing at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

in New York City, not far from his native Newark. Initiated and inspired by this childhood passion, he sought a career as a concert pianist. To this end, he enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music, which he attended for three years, but when he was offered work at

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

as an arranger for bandleader

Fred Waring Fredrick Malcolm Waring Sr. (June 9, 1900 – July 29, 1984) was an American musician, bandleader, and radio and television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing". He was also ...

, he dropped out of Juilliard to accept it.

Initial prominence

After garnering vocal and music arrangement credits for the 1938

RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...

motion picture ''

Radio City Revels ''Radio City Revels'' is a 1938 American musical comedy film directed by Benjamin Stoloff and starring Bob Burns, Jack Oakie and Ann Miller. The film's sets were designed by the art director Van Nest Polglase. Although set in New York City, sp ...

,'' Simeone relocated to Hollywood with his wife, Margaret McCravy Simeone, who briefly sang with

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His co ...

's orchestra, using the stage name Margaret McCrae, and later with Fred Waring. Once there, he had various music production jobs for several

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

films between 1939 and 1946, including some that starred

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

. In 1948, Simeone joined

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's ''The Swift Show'' as the program's orchestra leader, and in 1952, he joined NBC's ''The Firestone Hour'' as conductor and choral arranger.

"The Little Drummer Boy"

When the Twentieth-Century Fox Records label contracted Simeone to make a Christmas album in 1958, he assembled a group he called "The Harry Simeone Chorale" and searched for recording material. After being introduced to an obscure song by producer and credited song co-author Henry Onorati, titled "Carol of the Drum" (originally composed by

Katherine Kennicott Davis Katherine Kennicott Davis (June 25, 1892 – April 20, 1980) was an American composer, pianist, arranger, and teacher, whose most well-known composition is the Christmas song "Carol of the Drum," later known as "The Little Drummer Boy". Life and ...

in 1941 and arranged to present form by Jack HalloranEstrella, E. (8 February 2019). How the 'Little Drummer Boy' Christmas Carol Came to Be. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20191123173121/https://www.liveabout.com/little-drummer-boy-history-2456078), Simeone changed the title to "The Little Drummer Boy" and recorded it under that title for his album ''Sing We Now of Christmas''. He received joint authorship-and-composition credit for the album, although he did not actually write or compose the song. The single "The Little Drummer Boy" quickly became extremely popular and scored on the U.S. music charts from 1958 to 1962. The Simeone Chorale had another Christmas success during 1962, with their rendition of the then-new song "

Do You Hear What I Hear? "Do You Hear What I Hear?" is a song written in October 1962, with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne. The pair, married at the time, wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Regney had been invited by a record ...

" for

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

. In 1960, Simeone joined a revived half-hour version of ''

The Kate Smith Show ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' on CBS television, produced by Smith's long-time manager, Ted Collins. Though the program had good reviews, audience levels lagged at an early evening time, and the show was cancelled after some six months on the air. In the same year, 1960, Simeone organized another group, which he called The Harry Simeone Songsters, whose style he made similar to that of the

Ray Conniff Singers Joseph Raymond Conniff (November 6, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s. Biography Conniff was born November 6, 1916 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, United St ...

. Under his direction, that group produced a baseball-oriented song called "It's a Beautiful Day for a Ball Game", which many major-league teams played at their ballparks or used to open their radio/TV broadcasts. The song is on one of the '' Baseball's Greatest Hits'' CDs. In 1964, Simeone signed with

Kapp Records Kapp Records was an independent record label started in 1954 by David Kapp, brother of Jack Kapp (who set up American Decca Records in 1934). David Kapp founded his own label after stints with Decca and RCA Victor. Kapp licensed its records to L ...

. The following year he recorded a new version of "The Little Drummer Boy" for his album ''O' Bambino — The Little Drummer Boy''.

Final years

On May 22, 2000, Simeone and his wife, by then living on the Upper East Side of New York City, officially established the Harry and Margaret Simeone Music Scholarship at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

by bestowing a gift of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1 million. His wife Margaret died the following year, after which Harry's health declined. He died on February 22, 2005, at the age of 94, at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. Simeone's granddaughter

Laura Stevenson Laura Anne Stevenson (born April 25, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter from Long Island, New York, and formerly a keyboard player for the musical collective Bomb the Music Industry! Biography Stevenson was raised in Nassau County, New Y ...

also became a musician, becoming the frontwoman of

Laura Stevenson and the Cans Laura Anne Stevenson (born April 25, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter from Long Island, New York, and formerly a keyboard player for the musical collective Bomb the Music Industry! Biography Stevenson was raised in Nassau County, New Y ...

References

External links

Allmusic Biography AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...