The History of "Santa Baby"

Santa Baby

The song Santa Baby was written in 1953 by Joan Javits and Philip Springer.   The song also credits Tony Springer as co-writing the song; however, he was not a real person and was made up for legal purposes in order to record it. Santa Baby was originally recorded in 1953 by Eartha Kitt, but was remade several times throughout the 50s supposedly to keep other musicians from doing their own version of it.   These other versions included a more up-tempo version as well as a version called “This Year’s Santa Baby” which was recorded in 1954, but had very little success.
Philip Springer was born in 1926 in New York City.   He composed the instrumentals to Santa Baby when he was 27, and the lyrics were written by Joan Javits.   The singer, Earth Kitt, was born on January 17, 1927.   She was an actress and singer, and although she released many singles throughout the 40s and 50s, her most widely recognized work is in fact Santa Baby.   She appeared in many shows and movies throughout her lifetime such as the Mission Impossible series, the Batman series, Uncle Toms Cabin, The Emperor’s New Groove, and recently appeared in an episode of The Simpsons.   She also played in a variety of shows on Broadway and won several awards.   Ironically, she died of cancer on Christmas Day last year.
Joan Javits owned the copyright claims to the original version until 1981 when the contract expired and passed on to Philip Springer.   Philip Springer sought out for a singer to do a version of the song throughout the 80s until 1987 when Madonna agreed to it.   She recorded the track for a charity album entitled A Very Special Christmas which was a compilation album made to raise charity for the Special Olympics.   Madonna’s version received heavy airplay and most of the profit gained was contributed by Philip Springer to the Special Olympics.   While Earth Kitt’s version is still played, Madonna’s version is more popular and is widely recognized as the “definitive version”.