Grandma Got Run Over by a DJ

"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" is a Christmas novelty song written by Randy Brooks. He's the nephew of comedian Foster Brooks. [More Here] According to Brooks, he came up with the idea for the song after seeing his "drunk" uncle in action. But later he also cited Merle Haggard as an influence. As you may know, Randy didn't record the tune. The bluegrass duo Elmo & Patsy actually recorded it a with his permission in Oakland, CA in 1978. Having seen them both play, I suspect Patsy plays guitar on the original. Elmo was a banjo man especially in the beginning.

Back in in 1979 Elmo & Patsy were playing clubs in the Bay area, but also small stages in Reno and Lake Tahoe. The surprise hit was a 98 cent 45 rpm single sold at pharmacies. They were selling it at shows. The single hit so big locally that the story made the AP wire and then into regional newspapers. The Victoria Daily Times literally quoted a Tower Records manager "It's hot. I've had to call back and order more. I'm sort of bewildered by the whole thing."   

The song was originally self-released as a 45 in 1979 on their own Kim-Pat records, with the B-side titled "Christmas". Another pressing was on their own indie label, Oink. Soundwaves (NSD) re-released it in 1978 with distribution after airplay on KSFO unexpectedly sold 10,000 units. NSD sold another 250,000 copies. You can listen to that original, slightly more country version here. There were at least 6 different pressings of the original single in 1979 alone. A 1980 issue of City Arts Monthly reported: 

"The novelty Christmas song sold 20,000 copies in three weeks , a surprise, I'm sure, to everyone involved . Originally released on the subsidiary Oink label, it is being reissued this year in England by Stiff records. Such good fortune doesn't happen often in the small record company business, but chance and circumstances do make it possible." 

Patsy Trigg and Dr. Elmo Shropshire, were husband and wife back in 1979. But after the divorce in 1985 Elmo claimed that Patsy never sang on the record. This strikes me as dubious based on the vocal harmonies. It feels like a retcon; for a song he didn't write, Elmo takes a lot of the credit. But maybe it's a reference to the re-recording Elmo made in 2000 to get out from under the old 1984 Sony distribution deal. Possibly it was the 1982 re-recording they did after splitting from NSD and before the Sony deal. In an interview with Billboard [SOURCE] Elmo actually said  "I re-recorded my own version of “Grandma.” We used all the same personnel. Even I can’t tell the difference." This is nonsense. I can definitely tell the difference between the original and later versions. But if there were 3 or 4 recordings... I'm not so sure. More here.

Elmo dressed in grandma drag for Sony

At 560 KSFO-AM it was either the Kim-Pat pressing or the Oink 45 that found its way into the hands of Gene Nelson. Patsy said it was an opera singer who performed at the Sonoma Harvestfest in '79 who gave it to Nelson. One article credits the unnamed session drummer from the 45. (That was probably Bob Scott.) Either way, Nelson played it on KSFO in December of 1979 and the requests never stopped coming. Nelson didn't get asked much about breaking the single. He once said "It was around the Christmas season and here's this record 'Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.' So I listened to it and I thought, 'Aw, yeah.' I just thought it was hilarious, so I played it," Purportedly other Bay area stations taped it off of KSFO. Dr. Demento even invited Elmo & Patsy to perform it on his popular radio show back when he was on KMET. More here.

What made "Grandma" big in the Bay area was the same thing that made it into a national sensation. It was huge with kids. This song is referenced in dozens of student newspapers in the early 1980s. And there were a number of DJ stunts which got it back into the press in the mid-to-late 1980s. There was a very well reported stunt in December of 1985, on 103.7 WLLR in Davenport, IA. There DJ Jack Daniels, egged on by listeners, played the song 27 times back-to-back during the morning slot before station management was able to stop him. It burned up about 3 and a half hours of airtime. Even Penthouse magazine covered the story. The Christmas Encyclopedia by William Crump reports a similar stunt:

"A disc jockey in Davenport, Iowa, once played "Grandma" 27 consecutive time on the air (after which he was fired,) while another in Godfrey, Illinois, played it 310 consecutive times and made the Guinness Book of World Records." 

The latter claim I can't corroborate, and the "record" if real, is not recorded on the Guinness Book website. If the station was truly in Godfrey, IL there are only two possibilities. If it's an FM, it can only be WLCA. The Clark County Community College station. If it's AM, The only possibility is 1570 WBGZ-AM and only around 1988. I think that was also just a studio address. The city of license seems to have remained Alton, IL throughout that period. 

 

In 1979, The Daily Colonialist called them "Sonoma county ranchers." Elmo was a Kentucky native, he first moved to California in 1967, after getting his DVM at Auburn University’s School of Veterinary Medicine in Alabama. In Sonora he opened his own small animal hospital. In some early interviews he refers to this as part time. He voiced numerous national radio spots and was a regular guest on KPIX's "Evening Magazine" television show. Trigg was a Tennessee native. After the divorce, Trigg taught at at Motlow College, worked as an auctioneer and worked full time as an on air DJ for 98.7/1580 WLIJ in Shelbyville, TN. She gave at talk at the Fayetteville Rotary club about the history of the song. [LINK] 

But the most interesting thing that Patsy Trigg and Elmo Shropshire don't talk about in all these interviews and bios is their first bluegrass record. They released a traditional bluegrass LP in 1974 [SOURCE] and a second in 1980. [SOURCE] The former is quite collectible now. On the back cover are liner notes written by Mick Seeber who describes Pat & Elmo's origin as a group. Together they performed and hosted the Saturday afternoon program "The Great Bluegrass Experience" on KSAY with Mick Seeber as emcee. The program started in 1969 broadcasting live from a San Francisco club called The Orphanage. I have looked high and low for airchecks and found zilch.

Seeber later took the program, including Elmo & Patsy, to KNEW where it switched to nights 10:30 - 1:30 AM. I think that's when KSAY dropped their C&W format following the sale to James Gabbert in early 1974. This wasn't a standard country music program. Jerry Garcia also played the show, apparently with Old & in the Way. It's that early Grateful Dead connection which seems to have best survived today. From KNEW it was advertised as the only country station in the Bay which was true in that moment. But it's predecessor, Ray Elund's Bluegrass show on 94.1 KPFA "Pig in a Pen" was previously hosted by Al Knoth and Mick Seeber from 99.3 KRVE and continued through at least 1976. More here and here.