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"All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" is a novelty Christmas song written in 1944 by Donald Yetter Gardner (20 August 1913, Portland, Pennsylvania – 15 September 2004, Brockton, Massachusetts) while teaching music at public schools in Smithtown, New York. He asked his second-grade class what they wanted for Christmas, and noticed that almost all of the students had at least one front tooth missing as they answered in a lisp. Gardner wrote the song in 30 minutes. In a 1995 interview, Gardner said, "I was amazed at the way that silly little song was picked up by the whole country." The song was published in 1948 after an employee of Witmark music company heard Gardner sing it at a music teachers conference.
The song was originally recorded by Spike Jones & His City Slickers on December 6, 1948, with lead vocal by George Rock. That version reached the top of pop charts in 1949. |
