Christmas has come early for Johnny Gondesen, whose wish was to hear the Christmas song he wrote in 1965 finally make its debut on the radio this year. The catchy holiday tune is called “Christmas Is Here,” and was inspired by his children.   He was quoted as saying in one interview “We’d drive to Houston for Christmas shopping, and there were tree lots along the Gulf Freeway. The kids would cry ‘ho-ho-ho’ when they saw the Christmas trees. I said, ‘Ho-ho-ho. What can I do with that?’”   The song is at last, catching on so well, that he finally got to perform the song a couple of weeks ago on Houston, Texas radio station KRBE.

Johnny Gondesen, 83, is a former country band musician and a great-grandfather said he first started working on the song after getting married to his high school sweetheart and starting a family.  In an interview with CNN, he revealed his ambition for the song:  “My goal is to get the song all over the world, I would like all the children, especially at Christmastime, to be able to hear it and learn how to sing it.”

When he recorded the song, he had numerous 45rpm copies pressed and handed them out to everyone he knew, radio stations, dj’s, friends and family, but it went virtually nowhere until just recently, when his kids converted the original down to mp3 and started distributing it and the story behind it to news and radio sources.  Now the family has just six original copies left of the vinyl recording, which they plan to keep.  If you are interested, you can purchase the mp3 file on Amazon.

Freddie always loved a good underdog story; and this one certainly fits.  We wish you and your family all the best, Johnny!

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