The year was 1960. John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for president, and the civil rights movement was gaining traction. Frankie Avalon, Elvis Presley and The Drifters topped the charts. And a crooner from Bergen County released a novelty Christmas song about a donkey that, nearly six decades later, remains a love-it-or-hate-it holiday earworm familiar to generations of North Jersey families.

Lou Monte hailed from Lyndhurst and lived there until he was in his mid-20s. A singer with a number of mainstream hits to his credit, he is best known for perfecting the art of the novelty song. Of his contributions to the genre, “Dominick the Donkey” is arguably the most famous, one that is particularly popular among Italian-American families at Christmastime.