Bob McGrath -- Jingle Bells（ジングルベル）

 

This article was inspired from a talk that I had with commenter Scott earlier this morning, and I found out from him that Bob McGrath of "Sesame Street" fame was perhaps the original "Big in Japan" guy, even before he became a household name for children and parents alike. I started watching the show pretty much from the time that it started up in 1969, and the human faces were always Bob, Susan, Gordon and Mr. Hooper. I also thought that Bob was always the strongest singer and I will always remember his renditions of "Good Morning, Starshine" and "Sing".

When I got the information from Scott this morning, I decided to go down the Muppet hole and found quite a few record covers on YouTube and the other search engines with his familiar face and a lot of katakana. I even found a video of his 1967 appearance on the game show "I've Got a Secret" hosted by Steve Allen in which he divulges his interesting little secret and how he became a regular visitor to Japan.

Considering "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is back in Christmas mode, I thought it would be nice to have Bob's rendition of "Jingle Bells" for all to see. He sings half or most of the song in English but there are some verses that he does render in pretty good Japanese. According to the uploader, the Japanese lyrics were provided by someone named S. Takada with the arranger/conductor being K. Hattori. I'm assuming that this is referring to the composer and arranger Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）who passed away earlier this year in June. Hattori was responsible for arranging the very nostalgic version of "Sotsugyo Shashin"（卒業写真）by Hi-Fi Set and he also later helped out a Japanese singer with his own Christmas album in the 1990s.

Ahh...the more you know...😁. Thanks again, Scott!