In 1935, Johnny Marks, a songwriter, stepped foot into the music industry. During his career, Marks collaborated with the Ink Spots, Bing Crosby, and Glen Miller. This allowed him to become renowned enough to be known in Billboard Magazine. However, Marks would go on to write one of the most popular Christmas songs in history. In 1949, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was created.
In 1909, Marks was born in Mount Vermont, New York. When he was 13, he developed a passion for music and started composing songs. In 1931, Marks graduated from Colgate University, and he began writing music full-time shortly after, despite his parents’ disapproval.
In the spring of 1942, Marks put his music career on pause to volunteer for World War 2, enlisting as a U.S. army private. Marks served in the army for four years. During that time, he both entertained troops with his music and climbed his way to the rank of captain.
After the war, Marks married Margaret May. In 1939, her brother, Robert L. May, published a 32-page illustrated booklet titled “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” taking the world by storm with 2.4 million sold copies that year.
Eventually, a commercial version of the booklet was published in 1947, and a Rudolph cartoon was released into theaters in 1948. This inspired Marks to make a song about the reindeer. Thus, the creation of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Gene Autry, a country music-singer and movie star, recorded the song, and the music piece quickly became popular. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was Billboard’s best-selling pop single and children’s record for the last week of December of 1949. The song was also the fourth best-selling country and western record, the third most played song on the radio, and the fourth among jukeboxes.
In the following year, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was still famous and well-known, but there were many competing covers of the song. By the time Marks had died, there were approximately 500 versions that sold 150 million records. Furthermore, the song had been bebopped, soul-infused, tranquilized, saddled with twang, rocked, rapped, and made to cha-cha by stars like Ella Fitzgerald, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, the Temptations, DMX and Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Johnny Marks also wrote other Christmas hits such as Burl Ives’ holiday standard “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” which, in 2023, reached the number one spot on Billboard 65 years after it was recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958.
Johnny Marks’ “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” kept coming around annually, and, in 1958, Marks told The Associated Press, “If I told you today how much money I made on Rudolph, my kids would be kidnapped tomorrow.” Marks also mentioned to radio broadcaster Michael Whorf that he thanked Autry for the song’s success each year. “Something very special happened for me,” Marks said. “I wrote a song that circled the globe.”