How the Grinch Stole Christmas! of "Redbook" magazine. Dr. Seuss began work on "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" a couple of years later, around the beginning of 1957. He had recently completed "The Cat in the Hat" and was in the midst of founding Beginner Books with Phyllis and Bennett Cerf and his wife, Helen Palmer Geisel. Helen, who had ongoing medical problems and had suffered a small stroke in April 1957, nevertheless acted as an unofficial editor, as she had with previous Dr. Seuss books. Dr. Seuss wrote the book quickly and was mostly finished with it within a few weeks. Biographers Judith and
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special) were credited at the time. On December 18, 1966, MGM released a soundtrack LP in conjunction with the television special. CD releases include albums produced by Island (1995) and Mercury Records. In the recorded version, Boris Karloff does all voices including Cindy Lou Who. The song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", which comically describes the level of the Grinch's despicable nature, includes all verses with their original rhyming lyrics and the isolated song tracks have different durations due to being re-recorded. On October 5, 1999, Rhino Entertainment released a new CD soundtrack (which included the soundtrack for another Dr.