Song of the Day Dec 19

December 19, 2023

Today our song is: Santa Baby

Wikipedia tells us this about the song:

In August 1953, songwriters Philip Springer and Joan Javits were commissioned to write a Christmas song for Eartha Kitt for the upcoming holiday season. The writers had first met in 1950 during Springer's trip to Massachusetts where Javits had sought advice about beginning a career as a songwriter, which he advised against. Their professional relationship resumed three years later when Springer was searching for a new writing partner, he recalled:

I was looking for a new lyric writer, so I asked someone who had a lot of contacts and they suggested Joan Javits, the exact person who I suggested stay out of the industry! She said she was too busy. I asked her if she had ever written a hit and she said hadn’t, so I said, ‘l have. Are you going to tell me that you refuse to write songs with a songwriter who’s done more than you in the business?'

In a 2008 interview, Springer told the interviewer that "Philip and Joan (both ASCAP writers) checked into the song title with the publishers from a company called Trinity Music, owned by BMI. At the time, BMI and ASCAP were entrenched in a 'war,' as Philip described it, so in order to get the song published and settle their differences, they had to create a fictional BMI songwriter who they named Tony Springer."

Enjoy!