The first time I remember hearing this song was in December of 1970, when it was sung by a girls' chorus at my school during my sixth-grade year. Since I'd never heard it before then, I assumed it was a fairly new song, only recently released. Since then, I've heard a number of Christmas songs - and non-holiday songs as well - that I'd never heard before even though some were recorded years or even decades before. For example, I first heard the Christmas tune "Santa Baby" in December 1992, while I worked evenings and weekends at a men's clothing store in a local mall. The version I heard was sung by Madonna, in a silly Betty Boop/Judy Holliday-type voice, and I thought at the time that it was brand-new, like I did when I first heard "Do You Hear What I Hear?" As it turns out, the earliest version of "Santa Baby" I've found was recorded back in 1954 and sung by none other than Eartha Kitt, in a very sultry, seductive voice.
Likewise, the first time I remember hearing Brenda Lee doing the original version of "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" was also during the '92 Christmas season, at the very same clothing store (these two songs were included on one of the Christmas-mix CDs they played on the sound system during business hours)! When I first heard this song, I liked it right away - it quickly became one of my all-time favorite Christmas tunes (even today). It was some years before I first learned when that song was first recorded, however.
The point I'm trying to make with all this is that I've realized that there are lots of songs already recorded out there that I've not yet heard, and when I do, they'll sound brand-new to me until I discover when they were first recorded. It reminds me of a saying I read in a short story once: "Any book you haven't read is a new one." I guess the same applies to music.
Anyway, I thought I'd post this here to get your thoughts and opinions on this. Has anyone else had a similar experience regarding a song they thought was brand-new, but discovered was really old? Feel free to post your comments.
It's interesting that you bring that point up (and it's a good one, BTW). I remember hearing the Beatles doing "Please Mr. Postman" on one of their first albums and thought it was one of theirs. It wasn't until some years later that I learned it was first recorded by someone else, back in the 50's (Though I'm not sure by who right now).
IIRC, when a musician records a new version of a song previously recorded by someone else, they're said to be doing a "cover" of that song. Yet I'm still not sure why it's referred to that way. I once asked singer Debbie Gibson (via email) to explain the meaning, but she didn't know either. But you're right; a lot of songs we hear various artists sing were first recorded by someone else, giving those songs an illusion of "newness" (for want of a better term).
But whether sung by the original artist or a contemporary performer doing a cover of it, a great many songs I've heard for the first time seemed brand-new to me, until I discovered how old they really were. My experience with "Do You Hear What I Hear?" as I already posted, is a prime example of that.
The term "cover" goes back decades when cover version originally described a rival version of a tune recorded to compete with the recently released (original) version. The Chicago Tribune described the term in 1952: "trade jargon meaning to record a tune that looks like a potential hit on someone else's label." But why the word "cover", I can't tell you.