There are some songs that should just never, ever be sung by anyone other than the original artist. This is one of them.

Oh, people have tried. There are many, many recordings of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" out there, by many different artists. Go ahead and fire up Spotify and look for them if you like, but—SPOILER ALERT—all of them suck.

The only rendition of this song I ever need to hear for the rest of my life is the one from the 1966 TV special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The song was performed by Thurl Ravenscroft (also known as the long-time voice of Tony the Tiger), who initially didn't even receive an on-screen credit for his work. (To this day, there are those who mistakenly believe the singer was Boris Karloff, who narrated the special and provided the voice of the Grinch.)