Bruce Springsteen lyrics -- Bruce Springsteen shows -- Bruce Springsteen records

Song title: Santa Claus is comin' to town

(Coots, Gillespie) by The Three Suns 1952

Santa Claus is comin' to town

You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry
You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

He’s making a list, he’s checkin’ it twice
He’s gonna find out whose daughter you’re nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows if you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
(so you’d) better be good for goodness sake
Better be good for goodness sake

You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry
You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows if you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
(so you’d) better be good for goodness sake
Better be good for goodness sake

You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry
You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

Notes: Played around Christmas time in various tours. The more misplaced performances : 18-Sep-1984 Philadelphia and 28-Mar-1985 Sidney


Statistics from the KILLING FLOOR (www.brucespringsteen.it) database


Published on the following official releases:

First known live performance: 20/12/1973 Roger Williams University, Bristol,RI ,USA
Last known live performance: 14/12/2016 Carnegie Hall, New York,NY ,USA

Song 'history':

Played live 2 time(s) during the gigs preceeding the official Born To Run Tour.
Keep in mind that only a small amount of the setlists of these years has surfaced, so it may have been played a lot more.

Scarcely used during the Born to Run tour, with less than a dozen inclusions
The Darkness tour counted 23 apparitions of this song
The River tour counted 13 apparitions of this song
Bruce gave this song one only shot through the 1982-1984 period, during which Bruce played, with various small groups or guesting, in a number of bars and small clubs of the New Jersey area (28/12/1983 Monmouth Arts Centre, Red Bank,NJ ,USA)
40 perfomances were given during the Born in the U.S.A. tour
Just less than a dozen shots during the Human Touch tour
Two only renderings for this song in the Reunion tour (28/11/1999 Target Center, Minneapolis,MN ,USA and 29/11/1999 Target Center, Minneapolis,MN ,USA)
A great classic of the Convention Hall Holiday shows, being played during the Conventional Hall shows in 2000,2001 and 2003
During the Rising tour, the song was played less than a dozen times
One only performance during the Devils and Dust tour (22/11/2005 Sovereign Bank Arena, Trenton,NJ ,USA)
Just less than a dozen shots during the Magic tour
Scarcely used during the Working on a Dream tour, with less than a dozen inclusions
Published in live version in the 3rd DVD: House Cut 'Houston '78 of 'The Promise'
During the Wrecking Ball tour, the song was played less than a dozen times
Played once in the whole High Hopes tour (18/05/2014 Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville,CT ,USA)
Played only a couple of times in the whole 2016 The River tour (25/05/2016 Ethiad Stadium, Manchester ,GB and 23/08/2016 MetLife Stadium, E.Rutherford,NJ ,USA)

The song was also played in informal happenings or off-tour appearances
Data from the www.brucespringsteen.it database