Harry Simeone, 94, Holiday Chorale Conductor, Dies
NY Times
Harry M. Simeone, a conductor and arranger whose choral singers helped popularize Christmas evergreens like “The Little Drummer Boy,” died on Tuesday at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 94 and lived on the Upper East Side.
The death was announced by his family.
Mr. Simeone, who spent a career working for and with headliners like Fred Waring and Bing Crosby, became known on his own in the late 1950’s with the Harry Simeone Chorale. Its recordings of Christmas songs sold in the hundreds of thousands and were ubiquitous in homes and public places.
The most successful was his group’s rendition of “The Little Drummer Boy,” adapted from a Czech carol. Translated into English in 1941, it was first recorded in 1957 by the Jack Halloran Singers. According to Songfacts, a professional database, , a disagreement over the release of that record brought the song and the singers to Mr. Simeone for a redo.
Originally titled “Sing We Now of Christmas,” the album on the Holiday label that included “Drummer Boy,” turned into an instant holiday classic when it appeared in 1958, and made the Top 40 charts in the United States until 1962. Since then “The Little Drummer Boy” has been recorded by artists from Bing Crosby, paired with the rocker David Bowie, to the Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Guards.
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