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.

It only saw the light less than a dozen times in the whole Born to Run tour
The Darkness tour counted 23 apparitions of this song
Played during the River tour (13 times)
One only rendering for this song in 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
Scarcely used during the Human Touch tour, with less than a dozen inclusions
Two only performances during 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
Not much used during the Rising tour, deserving only less than a dozen renderings
Played once in the whole 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