Dr. Elmo
Elmo Shropshire - a.k.a DR. ELMO - is best-known for his recording of "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer," the Christmas classic which has sold more than 10 million copies since it was first broadcast by a San Francisco radio station in 1979. Consistently the most requested holiday song of the past two decades, "Grandma" has secured its place in American pop culture and made Dr. Elmo the king of comedy carols.
Each December, radio stations throughout the country call Dr. Elmo for his Christmas commentary and live on-air renditions of "that Grandma song."
With the quirky sing-a-long as centerpiece, a radio visit from Dr. Elmo has become part of the nation's holiday tradition. As a whole new generation sings along, Dr. Elmo continues to spread good cheer in his chats with disc jockeys and their listeners all across America. Along the way, he has released two CDs of seasonal satire, appeared on many television programs and been the subject of numerous magazine and newspaper articles.
That this Lexington, Kentucky, native would ride a reindeer to success is a slightly different scenario than the namesake of famed jockey and horse trainer Elmo Shropshire might have envisioned. After working alongside his father in the Bluegrass State and at racetracks in Florida, the future Dr. Elmo earned his degree in veterinary medicine and tended to the thoroughbreds of New York's Aqueduct and Belmont Park racetracks.
A move to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he established his own animal hospital, was his proverbial changing of the horses in the middle of the stream. He became a competitive runner. His bluegrass band performed in venues throughout Northern California. And, in 1979, he came upon a little song written by his friend Randy Brooks that everyone but Elmo agreed was one of the weirdest Christmas songs they had ever heard. "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" immediately became a regional phenomenon. Picketed by ageism-protesting Gray Panthers during a local performance, Elmo soon found himself interviewed on the Bay Area's airwaves
and beyond. His distinctive voice led to castings and voice-overs in national advertising campaigns. When MTV began airing the campy video of this stranger-than-strange holiday song in 1983, it surpassed Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" on Billboard's Christmas charts. The song and its singer were off to the races.
Today, "Grandma" romps in the Marin County fields of Laughing Stock Records, where it has sired numerous songs included on the label's full-length CD releases "Up Your Chimney," "Dr. Elmo's Twisted Christmas," "Love, Death and Taxes" and "Dr. Elmo's Twisted Tunes." Elmo is still running, too, maintaining a 25-mile weekly training schedule in the nearby hills. In the past year, he was first in his age division at Silicon Valley's prestige Compaq 10K and finished second in the San Francisco and Humbolt half marathons.
Every Christmas, he dons his traditional red and green silks and heads off for the holiday's annual run for the roses. As December 25th approaches, Dr. Elmo and his "Grandma" song come round the stretch and triumphantly gallop toward the finish line - a yearly Christmas Eve performance where he is
joined in the winner's circle by fans, friends, family and band for a rousing celebration.
Dr. Elmo, D.V.M, has always known how to nurture a long shot. More than twenty-five years after he first led it to the starting gate, the dark horse song has won the Triple Crown.
|
