This is one of my favourite Christmas songs – not least because of the little lyrical sting in the tail. Dianne Reeves’ arrangement and performance further undercut any excess sentiment.
I can’t tell you much about the songwriting team of Walter Kent, Kim Gannon and possibly (see below) Buck Ram. A cursory glance at Wikipedia reveals that Kent wrote the music for The White Cliffs of Dover and Gannon was the man behind the Perry Como hit A Dreamer’s Holiday – and, much more excitingly, the deathless The Gentleman Needs A Shave (here’s Marion Hutton with Glenn Miller – you know you want to).
Ram it seems may, or may not, have contributed to I’ll Be Home For Christmas (see here for the whole controversy) but he should care – he wrote The Great Pretender and, according to Wikipedia, was one of BMI’s top five songwriters (air play) over its first 50 years, alongside Paul Simon, Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Webb, and Paul McCartney.
Whatever the song’s provenance, it’s a cracker (see what I did there…?)