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By Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
“Hey, chingedy ching, hee-haw, hee-haw.”
If you spend your holidays in New Jersey — or if you grew up in an Italian-American household just about anywhere — you already know the next line, for better or worse: "it's Dominick The Donkey," of course!
Some folks absolutely love the kitschy Christmas tune about Dominick, the well-tempered Italian Christmas donkey who helps Santa Claus traverse the hills of Italy, where his reindeer simply cannot climb. Others would rather hear Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” played for all eternity before they willingly listened to that godforsaken song once more (I may be in the latter category).
Either way, the number sang by Lou Monte, a longtime New Jersey resident, has been a staple of the tri-state-area holiday season since its release, back in 1960.
The singer Monte would have turned 100 years old on April 2, 2017 (he died in 1989), so in celebration of his centennial — and with reverence to the finest ass of every New Jersey holiday season — here are seven things you probably didn’t know about “Dominick The Donkey” and the voice behind it.
1. Before he became known for "Dominick," Monte was a resident of Lyndhurst until his mid-20s, when he enlisted in the Army during World War II. When he returned to New Jersey after the war, Monte scored his own radio show, mixing comedy, songs, and cracks about his own Italian heritage for an AM station in Newark before being given airtime on a local television channel. At the same time he worked the New Jersey and New York club scenes, being promoted as "The Godfather of Italian Humor" and "The King of Italian-American Music," NorthJersey.com reports. He later resided in Totowa.
2. "Dominick The Donkey" was written by Ray Allen, Sam Saltzberg and Wandra Merrell, and recorded by Monte for a 1960 holiday release. While it quickly became popular in Italian households, it reportedly didn't receive significant radio play as stations viewed the tune and its partially Italian lyrics as a novelty track and not much less. Perhaps disc jockeys didn't think lines like "when Santa visits his paisans with Dominick" would resonate with everyone (they were probably right).
3. Speaking of those Italian lines in the song, let's speak some Italian. "Paisan" generally means countryman or friend. When Monte sings "Dance a tarantell," he means "la tarantella," a popular Italian dance. And when Santa Nicola (St. Nick) brings the "ciucciariell," that's just slang for "little donkey." Finally, when Monte shouts "Hey Dominick, Buona Natala!" that's simply Italian for "Merry Christmas!" (Technically, it's "Buon Natale").
4. Monte recorded several other Italian novelty songs as well, including "Pepino the Italian Mouse," — "Pepino" peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, if you can believe it — "Pepino's Friend Pasqual (The Italian Pussy-Cat)", "Paulucci, the Italian Parrot" and "Paul Revere's Horse (Ba-Cha-Ca-Loop)". Monte's "Lazy Mary (Luna Mezzo Mare)" often plays during the 7th inning stretch at New York Mets games.
However frivolous, Monte's novelty songs have endured and surely eased retirement for the singer — the family still collects royalty checks from Dominick and Pepino, CBS reports.
5. According to Monte's son, Ray, "Dominick" really gained steam in 1995, when CBS included the jingling equus on its "Ultimate Christmas, Volume 2" compilation. "It took off from '95 to now. It's really got a lot of longevity. It just makes them laugh and they have a good time with it," Ray told CBS in 2016.
6. An even bigger bump came in 2011, when the popular U.K. station BBC Radio 1 played the song regularly during its broadcast, to an audience that had largely never heard "Dominick" before. The song eventually reached No. 3 on the U.K. singles chart, and it was only fair — the Brits gave us The Beatles, we gave them an affable donkey who dances with children.
7. Dominick has even been recently immortalized in fiction; Sylvan Beach, N.Y. author Shirley Alarie released in 2016 a two-part children's book series, "A New Home for Dominick" and "A New Family for Dominick," chronicling what happened to the beloved animal after his Christmas affairs. It sounds like little D is doing just fine.
Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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