You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" is a Christmas song that was originally written and composed for the 1966 cartoon special "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" The lyrics were written by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, the music was composed by Albert Hague, and the song was performed by Thurl Ravenscroft. The song's lyrics describe the Grinch as being foul, bad-mannered and sinister, using increasingly creative put-downs, metaphors, similes and off-hand comments by the singer, beginning with the opening line "you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch". Because Ravenscroft was not credited in the closing credits
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.