Elmo Shropshire Dont Make Me Play That Grandma Song Again

Elmo Shropshire didn't write the Christmas novelty song "Grandma Got Run Over past a Reindeer." But the 1964 graduate from the Auburn University Higher of Veterinary Medicine constitute the quirky lyrics appealing when songwriter Randy Brooks played the ditty for Shropshire while the musicians were stranded in a Lake Tahoe hotel due to bad atmospheric condition in 1978.

Shropshire immediately knew he wanted to tape his own version.

"I just made this funny Christmas recording as a gag and a friend took it to a radio station and they started playing it," said Shropshire by phone from Lake Tahoe where he and married woman Pam are currently vacationing.

"People began calling in to say they loved it, but so did others — who hated information technology!" he recalled. "After that get-go Christmas, I thought that would be the end of it. But every Christmas the stations would play it again. Unbeknownst to me, they were copying the song on cassettes and radio stations began playing it all over the country in the early 80s."

Shropshire, who turned 84 this twelvemonth, has been singing it e'er since.

And while he readily acknowledges not everyone is a fan of his now-classic Christmas song, audiences would probably anarchism if he didn't perform information technology live — which he has been doing for decades. It is, after all, a triple threat carol: a catchy tune wrapped around witty — admittedly macabre — lyrics, featuring Shropshire'southward distinctive raspy voice.

"Ordinarily from early November through Christmas I play with a group of fantastic musicians called The Holiday Express," he explained. "Normally, I would be playing a hundred shows with anywhere from 300 to 1,000 in the audition."

The grouping, which may consist of anywhere from a dozen to some 60 members, also performs at soup kitchens, hospitals, and schools for kids with special needs as it travels across New York, New Bailiwick of jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC where they also distribute food and gifts. Only this year the tour was canceled due to the pandemic.

"Playing with this group of talented musicians is the pinnacle of my career, but nosotros'll hopefully be dorsum to normal adjacent Christmas," he said.

A Kentucky native, Shropshire says he had no musical groundwork or sang prior to moving to California several years after graduating from Auburn. Merely while studying at Auburn, he visited the River Region in the 60s and became of fan a local musician.

"One connexion I had was with songwriter Steve Young who lived in Montgomery for a while and wrote the song 'Seven Bridges Road' which The Eagles later recorded," said Shropshire of the well-known vocal based on a rural stretch of Woodley Road. "Steve later on came out to San Francisco and everyone was wild nigh him — he was a phenomenal songwriter and guitarist. I fifty-fifty bought a guitar from him."

In California, Shropshire soon became interested in bluegrass music and learned to play the banjo and began performing with his first wife, Patsy, while nevertheless juggling a successful brute dispensary only north of San Francisco.

In 1983, he sold the vet clinic and realizing he had a striking with 'the reindeer song' used $30,000 to produce a video with 1 modification: "Grandma survives in the video!" he said. "And I played grandma and grandpa."

While the video currently has over 9 million YouTube views, the vocalist isn't sure how many copies of the song have sold, given all the formats at present available.

"I recall it's over 11 million on vinyl, cassette, and CD with many more digital downloads now, including ringtones on cell phones — something like over 500,000 in the outset days when ringtones first became available."

And yes, the royalties keep coming whatsoever time his version is used – in movies, TV shows, and even a plush toy reindeer that plays the song.

While Shropshire has recorded many other songs including various versions of his 'grandma' theme — "The Ballot of Grandma," "Grandma'due south Killer Fruitcake" (see www.drelmo.com) — he takes the controversy of the original in his stride.

"It'due south just wonderful to take a hitting song, even if you only have i," he says. "I never thought I could however exist making a living from it. It'south just ane of those things you could never predict."

Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn Academy at Montgomery, and has written features, columns, and interviews for over 850 newspapers and magazines. Run into www.getnickt.org.

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Source: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/entertainment/2020/12/21/you-can-thank-au-grad-novelty-80-s-christmas-grandma-reindeer-song/3993255001/

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