You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch is a Christmas song that was originally written and composed for the 1966 cartoon special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The lyrics were written by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, the music was composed by Albert Hague, and the song was performed by Thurl Ravenscroft. The song's lyrics describe the Grinch as being foul, bad-mannered and sinister using increasingly creative metaphors and synonyms, beginning with the opening line "you're a mean one, Mister Grinch". The song has six verses.
Because Ravenscroft was not credited in the closing credits of the special, it is often mistakenly attributed to Boris Karloff, who served as narrator and the voice of the Grinch in the special but who himself could not sing. After becoming aware of the oversight, Seuss himself called Ravenscroft and apologized profusely, and later wrote letters to columnists nationwide telling them that it was Ravenscroft who provided the song.
Ravenscroft recorded two versions of the selection, one version for the television special and the other version for the soundtrack. The two versions differ in the order of the verses; the instrumentation—the soundtrack version's accompaniment is more straight-forward, and features fewer instruments and "sound effect" musical events, than the version heard during the special; the nature of singing (Ravenscroft uses more sprechgesang--half singing, half talking style--in the version heard on TV than the soundtrack version, which is mostly sung straight and in rhythm) and the transitions between verses—the soundtrack's transitions are shorter and less abrupt.
Born in 1914, raised in Norfolk, Nebraska, Ravenscroft served as a navigator in the WWII Air Transport Command before settling in Hollywood. An accomplished singer, he performed with the Sportsmen, the Mellomen, the Johnny Mann Singers, and many major stars, including Jim Nabors and Elvis Presley. He was best known, however, for his mellifluous voiceovers, and he voiced Tony the Tiger in countless advertisements for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes in both English and Spanish. In 1996, he and his wife June retired to southern California, although he still did occasional work as Tony. He died in 2005 of prostate cancer.
(http://www.wikipedia.com/ and http://www.imdb.com/)
Come to this weekend's Christmas Madness concert and see WBKO-TV news anchor Gene Birk sing this holiday classic.
Watch You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch from How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
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