Holiday Song History: ‘Dominick the Donkey’

• Song - Dominick the Donkey
• Year - 1960
• Written By - Ray Allen, Sam Saltzberg, Wandra Merrell
• Performed By - Lou Monte

Other Random Facts

• The song talks about a donkey who helps Santa take gifts, that were made in Brooklyn, to Italy, because the reindeer can't climb Italy's hills.
• In 1960, the song hit number 14 on the "Bubbling under the Hot 100" list, which is basically a list for songs that don't make that actual Hot 100.
• It had a resurgence in 2011 thanks to British radio talk show host Chris Moyles playing the song frequently reference to show contributor Dominic Byrne. They ended up putting together a campaign to get the song up to number 1, but they came up short with the song peaking at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart.
• The original title of the song has Dominick spelled with a "K" on the end, but the re-release dropped the "K".