Justin Bieber’s ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’

Yes, here’s an old classic sung by Justin Bieber using Animagic (really Rankin/Bass stop-motion techniques).

Music video by Justin Bieber performing Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. (C) 2011 The Island Def Jam Music Group.

Here Bieber become part of the classic Rankin-Bass TV special “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.”

Here’s a clip from the ending of the feature.

This isn’t the first time animation has been used for this song:

The actual song was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie in 1934, debuting in November on Eddie Cantor’s radio show. The TV special was produced in 1970 with Fred Astaire narrating. It tells the original story of Santa Claus.

Rankin/Bass used stop-motion. Their characters were dolls with spheroid body parts. The company which began as Videocraft International, Ltd., and was also known as Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc., was founded in 1960 but eventually was merged into Warner Bros.

The founder Arthur Rankin, Jr. is still alive (born July 19, 1924) and lives in New York.  The co-founder Jules Bass (born September 16, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) lives in New York and Paris and now writes children’s books.

Feature films

• Willy McBean and his Magic Machine (1965)
• The Daydreamer (1966)
• The Wacky World of Mother Goose (1967)
• Mad Monster Party (1967)
• King Kong Escapes (1968)
• Marco (1973)
• The Last Dinosaur (1977)
• The Bermuda Depths (1977)
• The Hobbit (1977)
• Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July (1979, Mickey Rooney)
• The Bushido Blade (1979)
• The Return of the King (1980)
• The Ivory Ape (1980)
• The Last Unicorn (1982)
• The Flight of Dragons (1982)
• The Sins of Dorian Gray (1983)
• The Wind in the Willows (1987)

 Animated TV specials

• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964, Burl Ives) (produced as Videocraft)
• Return to Oz (1964)
• The Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Show (1965)
• The Ballad of Smokey the Bear (1966)
• The Cricket on the Hearth (1967, Danny Thomas)
• The Mouse on the Mayflower (1968, Tennessee Ernie Ford)
• The Little Drummer Boy (1968, Greer Garson)
• Frosty the Snowman (1969, Jimmy Durante)
• The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians (1970)
• Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (1970, Fred Astaire)
• Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971, Danny Kaye)
• The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor’s New Clothes (1972)
• Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (1972)
• Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid (1972)
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1972)
• Red Baron (1972)
• That Girl in Wonderland (1974)
• ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974, Joel Grey & George Gobel)
• The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974, Shirley Booth)
• The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow (1975, Angela Lansbury)
• The First Easter Rabbit (1976, Burl Ives)
• Frosty’s Winter Wonderland (1976, Andy Griffith)
• Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (1976, Red Skelton)
• The Little Drummer Boy, Book II (1976, Greer Garson)
• The Easter Bunny is Comin’ To Town (1977, Fred Astaire)
• Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977, Roger Miller)
• The Stingiest Man in Town (1978, Tom Bosley)
• Jack Frost (1979, Buddy Hackett)
• Pinocchio’s Christmas (1980)
• The Leprechaun’s Christmas Gold (1981, Art Carney)
• The Coneheads (1983)
• The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985)
• Santa, Baby! (2001, Patti LaBelle)