I always listen to Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer by Gene Autrie for Christmas. It has to be him. I thought that he was the first singer to publish the song and was right. Then I wondered where Rudolf came from in the first place? The following link says it all.
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/willow.glen.resident/12.10.97/RememberWhen.html
Although everyone associates Rudolph with the Rankin-Bass animated production that’s been running since the early 1960s (with songs by the same team that wrote "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) there was, in fact a much EARLIER animated story of Rudolph. The Famous Studios (the descedndants of Fleischer studios, responsible for continuing to produce Popeye and Betty Boop, and for creating Caspar the Friendly Ghost, among others) did an animated Rudolph cartoon back in the 1940s. I’ve never seen it on TV, but it’s available on video.
I had an uncle who would always play his version every year on the 4th of July. No good reason, just another one of the reason to question your gene pool.