“It’s all cold down along the beach, the wind’s whipping down the boardwalk…Hey band! You guys know what time of year it is? Christmas time!”

Thus begins Bruce Springsteen’s iconic version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, recorded on this day  38-years ago at C. W. Post College in Greenvale, NY. One of the earliest performances of the song by Springsteen was Dec 23, 1973 at Rova Farms Function Center in beautiful Jackson, NJ. Midway through the song a brawl broke out and the promoters had to negotiate with the police to let the show continue. By the by, Rova Farm was not a “farm”, but a congregation center operated by the local Russian Orthodox community. Gauging from the ticket, it was a swanky affair. And I see that to celebrate playing in a Russian Orthodox run community, Bruce went with the Jewish spelling of his name.

“Everybody out there been good, or what?”

Buy the song at Amazon.

The video is from the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ on September 20th 1978.