Listen to Villagers and Lisa Hannigan’s cover of ‘The Little Drummer Boy’
nme.comVillagers have teamed up with vocalist Lisa Hannigan for a cover of the Christmas classic ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ – check it out below.The serene cover of the festive track comes after the Irish indie folk band announced their largest-ever headline show to date at Dublin’s Trinity College on June 29, 2024.Speaking about the song choice in a press release, Villagers’ frontman Conor O’Brien said: “Since I was a little boy this song by Katherine Kennicott Davis has captured my imagination more than any other Christmas carol.
Such a dream to perform it alongside the incomparable voice of Lisa Hannigan.”Composed in 1941 by Katherine Kennicott Davis, ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ – originally known as ‘Carol Of The Drum’ – has become a holiday staple.
Many have speculated that the song is loosely based on the Czech carol ‘Hajej, nynjej’.In an interview with Claire Fontijn, the Music Department Chair at at Davis’s alma mater Wellesley College, Fontijn revealed that the inspiration for ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ came to Davis in 1941.“[One day], when she was trying to take a nap, she was obsessed with this song that came into her head and it was supposed to have been inspired by a French song, ‘Patapan,’ and then ‘patapan’ translated in her mind to ‘pa-rum-pum-pum,’ and it took on a rhythm.
The result was ‘The Little Drummer Boy’,” Fontijn said.The most famous cover of the Christmas carol is by Bing Crosby and David Bowie.
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