Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

1979

Elmo and Patsy

AHHH, here we have it...the only song to top both the 'Most Loved' and 'Most Hated' Christmas Songs list.

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer was written by Randy Brooks and first performed by the husband and wife team of Elmo and Patsy Trigg Shropshire in 1979. Brooks sat in with the duo and performed it, they asked for a recording of it so they could learn it...which they did, very well I might add...and the rest, as they say, is history

By the next year they were selling cassettes of the song at their appearances in the San Francisco area...(Elmo was on the cover, dressed in drag and gray wig, as Grandma). A friend of theirs brought it to the attention of San Francisco radio station KSFO's Gene Nelson, who started playing the song locally. Other DJs and station managers heard it, and it slowly grew a following with more stations picking it up each year. 

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer was released in '79 on Elmo and Patsy's own self-titled label and as the 70s became the 80s, it became a Christmas hit. It's popularity ended up getting Elmo and Patsy noticed by and signed with Epic Records, though the two of them divorced and Patsy left the business shortly thereafter.

It's remained popular ever since and shows up regularly on Christmas playlists...and on TV.

In 2000, an animated movie depicting the song's events was made (It's for kids, so Grandma survives, and Santa was innocent...****SPOILER ALERT**** Cousin Mel did it). Elmo Shropshire

both voices Grandpa and narrates.

And admit it...when you've heard it...all of you've sung along with it ;) All of you!

SO Enjoy! Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer by Elmo and Patsy.