Blogocentric Formulations

You're the King of Sinful Sots

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"You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch"
by Thurl Ravenscroft

                   

Sometimes it's fun to listen to a holiday song that swings in the opposite direction of something wholesome and cheery. And for that, you can't do much better than this classic from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! With lyrics by Dr. Seuss, music by Albert Hague (who played music teacher Benjamin Shorofsky on the TV series and in the movie Fame), and the vocals of Thurl Ravenscroft (seriously, is there a better name for a guy with a deep baritone voice like that? ), you've got all the makings of a hit. Fun fact: Thurl Ravenscroft's other claim to fame - aside from this song - was that he was the voice of Tony the Tiger of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes for more than 50 years. "They're grrrreat!" Ravenscroft was not credited in the original TV special and when Seuss discovered the oversight, he personally called Ravenscroft to apologize and wrote letters to newspaper columnists nationwide telling them that Ravenscroft should be credited with the vocals. Still, to this day, the vocals are often erroneously attributed to Boris Karloff who served as the narrator and voice of The Grinch for the special.

There are actually two different versions of this original song; Ravenscroft recorded one for the TV special (shown in the video below), and another for the soundtrack. Not only is the instrumentation different (there are more "sound effect" musical notes in the TV version), but the order of some of the verses were altered. The song has been covered multiple times, the most famous of which is likely Jim Carrey's version from the live-action movie of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in 2000. It's also been covered by such diverse performers as Cee Lo Green, Aimee Mann, Mannheim Steamroller, Busta Rhymes, RuPaul, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Sixpence None the Richer, Dweezil Zappa, The Misfits, and Darius Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish.