First recorded by Jack B. Nimble & The Quicks (1961).
Hit versions by B. Bumble & the Stingers (US #23/UK #1 1962| UK #20 1972); Emerson, Lake & Palmer (as “Nutrocker” US #70 1972).
Also recorded by Trans-Siberian Orchestra (2009).
From the wiki: “In late 1961, producer Kim Fowley secured the copyright to an arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s ‘March of the Wooden Soldiers’ from the ballet The Nutcracker, and took this to local entrepreneur and pianist H. B. Barnum. Barnum recorded it as by ‘Jack B. Nimble & The Quicks’ for the small Del Rio label. However, when Rod Pierce of Rendezvous Records heard it, he convinced Fowley that his label could do a better version with their own band, B. Bumble & the Stingers.
“A new recording was arranged, but on the day, Ernie Freeman, who had played piano on ‘Bumble Boogie’, failed to appear, apparently due to heavy partying the night before. In his place, guitarist and arranger René Hall rushed pianist Al Hazan into the Rendezvous office, which was rigged up as an improvised studio.