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
Bruce inserted it 13 times in the setlists of the River tour
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)
The Born in the U.S.A. tour counted 40 apparitions of this song
During the Human Touch tour, the song was played less than a dozen times
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
It only saw the light less than a dozen times in the whole Rising tour
Bruce gave this song one only shot through the Devils and Dust tour (22/11/2005 Sovereign Bank Arena, Trenton,NJ ,USA)
Not much used during the Magic tour, deserving only less than a dozen renderings
Not much used during the Working on a Dream tour, deserving only less than a dozen renderings
Published in live version in the 3rd DVD: House Cut 'Houston '78 of 'The Promise'
Just less than a dozen shots during the Wrecking Ball tour
Bruce gave this song one only shot through the High Hopes tour (18/05/2014 Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville,CT ,USA)
Two only performances during the 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