If there’s a better-known holiday gag song than “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”, I’d like to know what it is.
What I didn’t know was that the song writer, neighborhood resident Randy Brooks, had never released a recording of the song in his own voice until now, with the release of his new CD: “Randy Brooks’ Greatest Hit”.
Of course, Grandma isn’t the only song on the CD, which also includes “The Garbage Dumpster Took My Love Away”, “Will You Be Ready at the Plate (When Jesus Throws the Ball?”, and “Bag Over Your Head” among its 12 tracks. You can sample “Grandma” and the other songs at CDBaby, where the CD is available for $13.99 plus shipping.
Brooks sent us a copy of the CD along with this note: “40 years in the making. I finally got serious and produced a CD, including my own first-ever recording of ‘Grandma’, before I had no one to sell it to but my fellow retirement home residents!”
Brooks also talked about why he decided to record what is essentially a “cover” of his own song, which has been made famous by the people Brooks sold the song to: Elmo & Patsy. (If you want to hear the Elmo & Patsy version, along with a completely corny video of the song, check out this one on YouTube.)
“It’s funny,” Brooks says. “I knew I needed to include ‘Grandma’ (on the new CD), but I also knew that it would come off as an unnecessary cover version, since the hit is so thoroughly ingrained in our brains. But I did want to take it back to my original version, which was “How would Merle Haggard have done this, if he had written it and didn’t intend it as a joke?”
Brooks says he will be doing a guest appearance with the Roanoke, Va., symphony soon, as well as a show at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville to promote the CD. No word about any local appearances yet, but we’ll let you know if any materialize. And if you’re interested, here’s the Wikipedia version of the song’s history.
