Dr. Elmo celebrates 26 years of
"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer"
Dr. Elmo's allotted fifteen minutes of fame should have run out 26 years ago when his song, "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer," received its first radio play in 1979. But unlike disco, 8-tracks and platform shoes, Dr. Elmo's cheerfully subversive holiday song is still popular; 10-million-copies-sold popular-and it has long since replaced Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" as America's most requested Christmas song.
A sociologist might suggest that "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" was the beginning of a sea change in American culture, presaging a cultural transition from The Ed Sullivan Show to Seinfeld. After all, Bing Crosby's Christmas carol is a nostalgic America icon suitable for a Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover, while "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" is a completely wacky tale right out of Mad Magazine.
But it would be wrong to go on at length about these cultural implications, because this is a publicity release, not a doctoral thesis. The point here, obviously, isn't to wax profound, but to urge you to have your people call Dr. Elmo's people (he has two) to arrange a personal appearance or telephone interview. And in that spirit, flip the page to see the Top 10 Reasons to Call Dr. Elmo …
