Frosty the Snowman Theme with Jimmy Durante, and Hardrock, Coco and Joe, and Suzy Snowflake


Frosty the Snow Man - Music by Jimmy Durante -- for the film by Jeffrey Lee Martin.

Frosty the Snowman was written by Steve "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson and recorded by Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys in 1950. Notice Frosty the Snowman is considered to be a Christmas song without mentioning Christmas at all.  Frosty the Snowman was written after Gene Autry recorded "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the single sold 2 million copies.



Frosty the Snowman was a response to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. When song writers Jack Nelson and Steve Rollins watched the success Gene Autry was having in 1949, singing Rudolph's song, the songwriters decided to write their own light-hearted, catchy song doing variations on an icon of Christmas. They took months to develop the idea of a living snowman as their subject, but they still had it ready in time for a 1950 release. Gene Autry was delighted with the opportunity to have the chance to return to the top of the charts with another song.

Gene Autry's version reached Number 7 in US pop singles.

Perry Como's version reached Number 74 in US pop singles.

In 1954, the UPA studio brought "Frosty" to life in a three-minute animated short which appears regularly on WGN-TV. The short, filmed entirely in black-and-white, has been a perennial WGN-TV Christmas classic, and was broadcast on December 24 and 25, 2005, and every year since, as part of a WGN-TV children's programming retrospective, along with their two other short Christmas classics, "Suzy Snowflake" and "Hardrock, Coco and Joe."

Frosty The Snowman (1953) black and white 3:09.

On December 18, 1956, WGN-TV's "Garfield Goose and Friends" introduced Chicago area children to Santa Claus' three favorite elves, Hardrock, Coco and Joe. At two-feet-high, Hardrock drove Santa's sleigh while Coco navigated and Joe tagged along for fun.

Suzy Snowflake.

On December 28, 1953, Chicago area kids were introduced to the whimsical story of Suzy Snowflake "tap, tap, tappin'" on every windowpane, seen on "Garfield Goose and Friends" then on WBBM-TV.