What I've Learned

The Grinch, as everyone knows, is a mean one. After all, he stole Christmas. What everyone doesn't know is the name of the fellow with the amazing voice who sings "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."

The reason they don't know his name – it's Thurl Ravenscroft – is because he was accidentally left off the credits.

In 1933, Thurl Ravenscroft moved from Nebraska to California to study interior and set design. In addition to his studies, he sang in a church choir. Hollywood studios were making lots of musicals, and the director of the choir worked as a studio singer. He told Thurl that Paramount was holding auditions for singers and the young Nebraskan should give it a try.

When Thurl auditioned, they asked him his name.

"Thurl Ravenscroft."

"That is a beautiful stage name. What's your real name?"

"That is my real name," he said.

Based on the audition, Thurl started getting calls as a studio singer. When there was going to be a recording session and a bass voice was needed, he'd be hired for the session.

Soon, he was asked to join a quartet, for which the pay would be $40 a week. He joined, thinking that the quartet would split the $40. No, he was amazed to learn, each member would get that amount.

He quit art school.

Thurl had such a pleasing, resonant, clear bass voice, he did backup vocals for many famous singers. You can hear him, for example, on Rosemary Clooney's "This Ole House" and on the soundtrack of South Pacific, doing voice-overs for Ken Clark, who played Stewpot.

A quick study and a flawless singer, Thurl could do five or six recording jobs a day, finishing one and going straight to another. And so he was asked to sing the lead song for a 1966 cartoon special, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He came into a studio where sat Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel and Chuck Jones, the lead animator for the project.

It took Thurl a little over an hour to learn and record two versions of You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, then he moved on to the next job. No one had any idea that the special – and the song – would be such a hit, still being shown and played all these years later.

Because Thurl was accidentally left off the closing credits of the special, people assumed that Boris Karloff, who narrated the show and did the voice of the Grinch, had also sung the song.

Upon learning that Thurl had been left off the credits, Geisel, himself, called the singer to apologize. Later Geisel wrote letters to newspaper columnists across the country saying that it was Ravenscroft's voice on the recording.

The Grinch special was not the first time that Thurl had been uncredited in a major role. In 1951, an advertising agency sent him a drawing of a cartoon tiger and a sample script for a new Kellogg's cereal.

At the end of the script, the tiger, whose name is Tony, is asked, "Are Frosted Flakes any good?” And Tony says, “Good? Why, they’re great!”

Thurl decided to do something extra with the word great, saying in that magnificent voice of his, "They're Grrreat!"

Kellogg and the advertising agency loved it, and Thurl was hired to do the voice of Tony the Tiger. He did it – uncredited, but certainly not unpaid – for 49 years.

Thurl died in 2005, but his voice lives on.

There are many wonderful Thurl Ravenscroft recordings available. One of my favorites is "You Wanna Talk About Texas," which he made with Roberta Lee. In the song, Ravenscroft wants to talk about Texas, but Lee wants to talk about love. The song is delightful, and the performances sparkle.

Radio station WMFU has more than 30 free MP3s of Thurl's recordings that you can listen to and download. Search for WMFU and Ravenscroft. YouTube also has a number of his recordings.