About The Song
“Santa Claus Is Back in Town” is a Christmas song recorded by American country singer Dwight Yoakam for his holiday album Come On Christmas. Released in 1997 on Reprise Records, the album is regarded as Yoakam’s eighth studio album and his first dedicated Christmas project. His version of the song is a cover of the 1957 rock and roll Christmas standard written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and first made famous by Elvis Presley.
Come On Christmas presents a mix of classic holiday material and originals, including songs such as “Run Run Rudolph,” “Silver Bells,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Silent Night,” and Yoakam’s own title track. The record peaked at No. 32 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, confirming that there was a solid audience for a Yoakam-styled country Christmas release in the late 1990s. Within the track list, “Santa Claus Is Back in Town” appears in the middle of the album and helps balance traditional carols with more rhythm-and-blues-oriented material.
The song itself has a longer history that predates Yoakam’s version by four decades. “Santa Claus Is Back in Town” was originally written in 1957 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and first recorded that same year by Elvis Presley as the opening track on Elvis’ Christmas Album. That album went on to become the best-selling Christmas/holiday album of all time in the United States, and the song has since been regarded as a rock and roll Christmas standard. It has appeared on numerous Presley releases and compilations and has been revisited regularly by rock and country artists.
Lyrically, the song uses playful double entendres to present Santa as a more adult, blues-flavoured figure. Instead of sleighs and reindeer, the singer promises to arrive in a big Cadillac and to “come down your chimney tonight,” blending traditional Christmas imagery with suggestive rhythm-and-blues language. References to snow on the ground, stockings, and the arrival of “old St. Nick” keep the song firmly within the Christmas theme, while the tone remains closer to urban blues than to a typical carol.
Yoakam’s recording keeps the core structure and lyric of the Leiber–Stoller composition but frames it in his own blend of honky-tonk, Bakersfield country and rockabilly. The track runs just under three minutes and features twangy electric guitar, a steady backbeat and a vocal delivery that leans into the blues origins of the song while still sounding like a Dwight Yoakam record. The production sits comfortably alongside the rest of Come On Christmas, which often pairs traditional material with arrangements that have a slightly rough, bar-band edge rather than a heavily orchestrated holiday sound.
As part of the album campaign, Yoakam’s version of “Santa Claus Is Back in Town” was released to country radio as a seasonal single. In the United States it reached No. 60 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, listed among Yoakam’s Christmas singles rather than his regular album cycle releases. Although this was a modest peak compared with his major hits of the early 1990s, it gave the track a measurable chart presence and helped introduce the classic Leiber–Stoller song to country radio listeners of that era.
Since its release, Yoakam’s recording has continued to appear on country Christmas playlists and various holiday compilations. Live performances of the song, including television appearances, emphasize its mix of rock and roll energy and country twang and underline how easily it fits within Yoakam’s broader repertoire. Taken together with the history of the original Presley version, his 1997 recording shows how “Santa Claus Is Back in Town” has moved between genres and generations while remaining a recognizable part of the Christmas song canon.
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Lyric
Christmas, Christmas, Christmas
Well, it’s Christmas time pretty baby
And the snow is on the ground
It’s Christmas time pretty baby
And the snow is on the ground
Said you better be good now baby
‘Cause Santa Claus is back in town
I don’t got no sleigh with reindeer
Got no toys on my back
You’re gonna see me coming
In a big black Cadillac
It’s Christmas time pretty baby
And the snow is on the ground
Said you better be good now baby
‘Cause Santa Claus is back in town
Ho-ho-ho honey
Hang up your pretty stockings
Girl turn out the lights
Santa Claus is comin’ down
Your chimney tonight
It’s Christmas time pretty baby
And the snow is on the ground
Said you better be good now baby
‘Cause ol’ Saint Nick is back in town
Oh Merry Christmas, baby
And have a Happy New Year too