The song was written by Walter Rollins and Steve Nelson in 1950 and was first recorded by Gene Autry of that same year. Later, Jimmy Durante recorded the song. It was written after the success of Autry’s recording of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ in 1949. Warner Brothers owned the rights to all the characters.
The song recounts the fictional tale of Frosty, a snowman who is brought to life by a magical silk hat that a group of children find and place on his head. Frosty enjoys roaming throughout town with the children who constructed him. Frosty finally says ‘Goodbye’ to the children and comforts them, promising he will be back again someday. Although it is generally regarded as a Christmassy song, the original lyrics make no mention of the holiday, leaving ‘Frosty the Snowman’ as a song for all wintery occasions of a child’s year.
This song forms one of my earliest memories as a child hearing it for the first time on the wireless (that’s the radio for all you young ones under the age of sixty), being sung by one of my favourite cowboys and screen idols, Gene Autry, and ‘that man who sings down his nose’, as my mother used to describe Jimmy Durante.
Now, go on and be truthful for once! Hands up if you can remember being filled with enough excitement to either break wind or burst your braces upon seeing the first heavy snowfall of the year outside your bedroom window…and… throwing your first snowball… and…building your first snowman… and… talking to your snowman…and…hearing him talk back to you? If you recall these happy memories, you can continue your day in the certain knowledge that you still have the child in you, so, please keep him/her there.
Love and peace Bill xxx