The man behind the Christmas song, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, either the most loved or most loathed of the season and certainly one of its most memorable, has no problems being a one-hit wonder and says the song has been both “my blessing and my albatross.”

Randy Brooks, 67, a song writer and son of a church organist, told Reuters Wednesday he may not have left his mark on pop culture had it not been for car trouble in Lake Tahoe.

He was stuck in the resort town in the ’70s with his band when he was invited up onstage by headliners Elmo and Patsy Shropshire and played the novelty tune he had written about the senior’s improbable death.

Elmo Shropshire immediately asked to record it for the Elmo & Patsy act, Brooks said. Shropshire created copies of the song on 45-rpm records that he sold at his shows until radio DJs began playing it on air.

Read the article “Meet the Church Organist’s Son Who Wrote ‘Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer’” on reuters.com.