News Archive: 2025

Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Gene Autry’s “Peter Cottontail”
Posted March 29, 2025

Spring and Easter signify rebirth and new beginnings, and for Gene Autry it was only natural that he’d record an Easter song. After all, he’d had massive success with holiday smashes “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Way),” in 1947, and “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in 1949. Soon after, kicking off a new decade, Gene would create the most enduring secular Easter song of all time, “Peter Cottontail,” beloved by generations of children of all ages. The year 2025 marks the 75th anniversary of the perennial classic: Gene Autry’s recording of everyone’s favorite, “Peter Cottontail.”

Who doesn’t love adorable Easter bunnies? Certainly, kids and parents alike. And by 1950, when Gene cut “Peter Cottontail,” his huge audience had expanded from his original fans who’d been watching his movies since the 1930s to a huge new generation of baby boomers – the children of his original audience – who loved America’s Favorite Singing Cowboy’s movies, his brand-new television show, his weekly CBS radio programs, his comic books – and, of course, his recordings.

Where did “Peter Cottontail” come from? It was written in 1949 by the songwriting team of Steve Nelson and Walter E. “Jack” Rollins. They were probably inspired by the work of English writer, illustrator, and conservationist Beatrix Potter, whose beautiful book The Tale of Peter Rabbit was first published in 1901. Potter, who died in 1943, wrote and illustrated the delightful story about a mischievous bunny with a sibling named Cotton-tail. As a child, Potter had a beloved pet rabbit named Peter Piper. (Fun fact: Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, is a distant cousin of Beatrix Potter.)

Potter’s work, in turn, inspired the Massachusetts conservationist and author Thornton W. Burgess to create a Peter Rabbit character – a pompous little bunny who decides to change his name to Peter Cottontail in Burgess’ book, Old Mother West Wind, published in 1907. Neither Potter nor Burgess, though, conceived of Peter as having anything to do with the Easter holiday. That idea sprang to the imagination of lyricist Walter E. “Jack” Rollins, who grew up in West Virginia. Nelson teamed with composer Steve Nelson, and in 1949 the duo composed the catchy tune, “Peter Cottontail.” The duo was on a roll, and soon “Peter” was followed by a couple of other character-driven classics, “Frosty the Snowman” (another huge hit for Gene Autry later that year) and, in 1952, “Smokey the Bear” (the beloved symbol of our national parks’ message to prevent forest fires).

The first artist to record “Peter Cottontail” was Country & Western singer Mervin Shiner, whose Decca Records A&R man Paul Cohen discovered the composition and convinced Shiner to record it. (Fun fact #2: Cohen would later sign pioneering Rock & Roller Buddy Holly.) Shiner’s version, which featured organ, horns, and guitar, hit the country charts in early 1950. But the songwriters knew their song would soar to the stratosphere if recorded by none other than America’s premier singing cowboy star Gene Autry. Sure enough, Gene took a shine to the song, and his warm croon was perfect for its sing-along lyrics. He recorded the song in Columbia Records’ New York City studio on March 2, 1950, accompanied by his longtime music director Carl Cotner and his orchestra. The whimsical instrumentation features fife, glockenspiel, and violins, among traditional guitars and bass. The record’s flipside, “The Funny Little Bunny (With the Powder-Puff Tail),” was co-written by Gene and his guitarist of nine years, Johnny Bond (known for writing the hit “Hot Rod Lincoln”).

Gene debuted “Peter Cottontail” on the airwaves of his national radio show on April 8, 1950, the day before Easter Sunday. Sure enough, his version caught fire, becoming Gene’s second holiday smash kicking off with the lyrics “Here comes…” – reminiscent of his first holiday hit, “Here Comes Santa Claus.” This time: “Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail – hippity hoppity, Easter’s on its way.” It soared to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on Billboard’s Country Singles chart.

Before he cut “Peter Cottontail,” Gene already had a penchant for Easter songs. He’d previously performed “Easter Parade” as early as 1947 on his radio show. The 1933 Irving Berlin classic was originally introduced by Don Ameche in 1938’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band, and was performed by one of Gene’s favorite singers, Bing Crosby (whom he called “der Bingle”) in the 1942 classic, Holiday Inn. And in 1948 Judy Garland and Fred Astaire did the honors, covering the song in the musical, Easter Parade.

In 1950, when Gene scored with “Peter Cottontail,” his career was pivoting into new ventures, while sustaining his traditional entertainment platforms. The 1949 success of “Rudolph” had anticipated a trend for Gene: making discs specifically geared to the children’s market, such as his spoken-word releases “Stampede” and “Champion (The Horse No Man Could Ride).” At Columbia Records, Gene had begun working with Herman “Hecky” Krasnow, the label’s executive in charge of special markets, who oversaw Gene’s holiday and children’s recordings.

The timing couldn’t have been better for Gene to enter the children’s market. By the late 1940s, the recording industry had undergone changes. In 1948, Columbia had introduced the first LP, or long-player, a ten-inch (later twelve-inch) 33 1/3 rpm platter made of vinyl (developed during WWII when shellac previously used for discs was in short supply). The more-durable vinyl LP’s “microgrooves” permitted better aural quality and could hold more songs than a 78. RCA Victor countered this innovation in 1949 with an inexpensive seven-inch 45 rpm vinyl disc, which came to be known as a 45 (and later, singles). Eventually, all labels began issuing LPs (soon to be called albums) and 45s – with 78s gradually phased out. The burgeoning children’s music market quickly adopted both new types of discs. When the New York Times announced the release of Gene’s “Stampede,” it reported that “Victor has hit upon a new and useful idea for its children’s albums, which it now issues in what it calls its ‘Little Nipper’ series. The small 45 rpm albums are easy for the youngster to handle and the text of the story is bound into the volume in book form.” Appealing to families, Columbia illustrated Gene’s holiday record sleeves with fun, kid-friendly illustrations, its packaging similar to their favorite storybooks.

Gene’s latest recordings and movies appealed to adults and children alike, and included intriguing story songs featuring animals, such as “Ghost Riders in the Sky” written by Stan Jones, a former Death Valley forest ranger. Gene bought the film rights to the vivid ballad about spectral range-riders chasing red-eyed zombie-steers. Gene additionally bought film rights to Jones’s tune “Whirlwind,” which he recorded during the same session as “Ghost Riders,” and the script inspired by that song would also become a movie. (Another fun fact: an earlier Autry film about a horse, Strawberry Roan, would many decades later inspire the name of pop star Chappell Roan.)

Gene’s audience for children expanded exponentially in 1950 when he became the first major Hollywood star to produce his own television series. On April 18, 1950, the New York Times reported “Gene Autry will be the first motion picture star to produce and appear in films for television transmission, it was learned today from the cowboy actor’s business manager Mitchell Hamilburg. Autry, Hamilburg, and Armand Schaeffer, producer, have formed Flying A Pictures Inc., and have negotiated a sponsorship deal with the William Wrigley company for a series of half-hour Westerns, the first of which will go before cameras in three weeks.” A subsequent article reported Gene’s move “indicated that the production of films for television is here to stay. … It is believed that a major reason for Autry’s entry into the television field is its importance as a means of recruiting new admirers. The popular renaissance of William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy) since his old pictures have been regularly telecast is evidence of the importance of the medium to actors whose audience is drawn from the rising generation, and consequently there is speculation that other cowboy actors may follow Autry into the video corral.”

The same week, CBS president Frank Stanton wrote Gene a personal note: “CBS is mighty proud to have The Gene Autry Show…Today the Columbia Broadcasting System has the largest nationwide coverage – day and night – of any network [NBC and ABC]…During the first quarter of 1950, CBS averaged: 15 out of the top 20 night-time programs; 10 out of the top 15 daytime shows…” By October, eight million TVs had been purchased in America, and producers had spent more than 100 million dollars a year creating programming, according to a GE television set advertisement intended to prove that TV was no passing fad, but rather “the world’s greatest entertainment – available night after night, day after day in an ever-growing cavalcade including drama, variety, comedy, music, news, sports, service, and children’s shows.” On July 23, 1950, when the big day arrived for the debut of Gene’s first television picture, entitled “Head for Texas,” the critics were impressed. Airing at 7 p.m., “the snappy horse opera” was a tautly condensed version of an Autry film featuring Gene versus cattle rustlers, a ranch-owning love interest, a musical number, and the humor of his sidekick Pat Buttram.

The making of Gene’s television series did not prevent him from shooting movies. In Hills of Utah (released in 1951), Gene plays a frontier doctor who returns to the town where his father was murdered. He aids an impoverished family whose mother is ill at Easter time, with Gene cheering up the children by giving them bunny toys and singing them … “Peter Cottontail.”

In 1950, Fortune magazine named Gene “Hollywood’s #1 Businessman,” and “Gene Autry: Millionaire Cowboy” was the title of a feature in the biweekly glossy, Look. In addition to more than 100 children’s products that carried Gene’s name, he also signed with Dell Publishing Company to produce a new line of Gene Autry comic books. And from January to March 1950, Gene embarked on a 10,000-mile tour of 65 cities across the U.S. and Canada, entertaining a total audience of an estimated half-million people over 84 performances.

On March 21, 1950, Columbia Records issued a press release stating Gene had renewed his contract with the label for another five years. Sure enough, Gene’s brand-new Easter hit, “Peter Cottontail,” sold 175,000 copies during its first week of release. Featured on Gene’s popular weekly radio show, it would be reprised annually during the Easter season. By the end of 1950, Gene was listed in the ninth spot in a Gallup poll of the nation’s favorite male singers – the only Western vocalist to make a survey list topped by Bing Crosby (followed by Perry Como).

Indeed, 1950 was a tentpole year for Gene Autry – certainly his biggest year in the entertainment field since 1939, when his massive popularity as one of Hollywood’s Top Ten stars yielded a record-breaking tour of the U.K. and such honors as Gene Autry Day at the New York City World’s Fair. Eleven years later, the 43-year-old Autry’s original fans now had children whose fandom equaled that of their parents.

Over the next fourteen years, Gene’s warm vocals and conversational tone remained perfect for children’s narratives. Among holiday songs, spoken-word narration, country, pop, folk, and his traditional Western repertoire, he would record a few more Easter tunes for kids: On January 31, 1952, he cut “Bunny Round-Up Time” and “Sonny the Bunny,” both with his female back-up group, the Pinafores (Ione, Beulah, and Eunice Kettle). Two years later, on January 4, 1954, he recorded with his Western trio the Cass County Boys (Jerry Scoggins, Fred Martin, and Bert Dodson), “Easter Mornin'” and “The Horse with the Easter Bonnet.” These were delightful additions to the Autry children’s music catalog, which continued to expand.

Along with his ear for a good tune, Gene Autry’s astute ability to evolve with the times and adapt accordingly as demographics and technology changed has kept his legendary status alive into the first quarter of the twenty-first century. And every spring for the past seventy-five years, we can count on hearing “Peter Cottontail,” Gene’s memorable contribution to the Easter song canon.

– Holly George-Warren

Two-time Grammy nominee Holly George-Warren is the award-winning author of 18 books, including “Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry” (Oxford University Press, 2007). Her other biographies include “Janis: Her Life and Music” and “A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton.” She has co-written books with Dolly Parton and Woodstock festival producer Michael Lang, and contributed to such publications as “Rolling Stone,” the “New York Times,” “Oprah Daily,” and “Texas Monthly,” among others.

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