Dominick the Donkey is a well known Christmas song written by Ray Allen and Lou Monte and first sung by Lou Monte in 1960. For decades the song was only occasionally heard. Oldies 103.3 WODS of Boston, Massachusetts and WCBS-FM in New York are common stations that play the song around Christmas . It was perceived to be too novel for the softer music stations and too old or corny for CHR/Top 40 stations. But beginning in the early 1990's, more contemporary artists began to record Christmas music. As a result, younger skewing radio stations began to feature more Christmas music on their stations, even going wall to wall on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. While there were more Top 40 core artists doing Christmas music by 1992, the stations still needed to play older artists to supplement the newer Christmas music. A few stations found this song and began mixing it into their Christmas rotations. The song got very positive feedback and as a result, this song began to gain airplay in many formats. Many people assume it was a recent recording and do not realize this song has been around for over 40 years. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Holiday Song redirects here. ... Lou Monte, born Louis Scaglione on (April 2, 1917 – June 12, 1989), was an Italian-American singer best known for a number of best-selling, Italian-themed novelty records which he recorded for both RCA Records and Reprise Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s. ... WCBS-FM (101. ... This article is about the state. ... CHR redirects here. ...

In late 2006, the song's chorus was played extensively on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 due to the names of the show's newsreader (Dominic Byrne) and "The Italian Christmas Donkey" being the same.

The song is known to be a year round favorite of traders at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)

External Links

• 'Dominick the Donkey' alive & kicking, New York Daily News
• 'Dominick' a favorite of New York radio, Political Gateway
• Official website

WODS 103.3 plays this song every night at 5pm EST

Since 1986, this song has brought much joy to the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. As a tradition, members of the Gamma Psi chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon have boisterously played the song over speakers that can be heard neighborhood-wide starting after Thanksgiving and continuing through the new year. The joy the song has brought to the community has been recognized by the Butler Collegian, local top 40 station 99.5 WZPL and the Indianapolis Star.