Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics. In 2007, ASCAP ranked it the third most performed Christmas song during the preceding five years that had been written by ASCAP members.
In 2004 it finished at No. 76 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs rankings of the top tunes in American cinema.
''Meet Me in St. Louis''
The song was written in 1943 for the then-upcoming film Meet me in St. Louis, for which MGM had hired Martin and Blane to write several songs. Martin was vacationing in a house in the neighborhood of Southside in Birmingham, Alabama that his father Hugh Martin had designed for his mother as a honeymoon cottage, located just down the street from his birthplace, and which later became the home of Martin and his family in 1923. The song first appeared in a scene in which a family is distraught by the father's plans to move to New York City for a job promotion, leaving behind their beloved home in St. Louis, Missouri, just before the long-anticipated 1904 World's Fair begins. In a scene set on Christmas Eve, Judy Garland's character, Esther, sings the song to cheer up her despondent five-year-old sister, Tootie, played by Margaret O'Brien.Lyrics and revisions
Some of the original lyrics that were penned by Martin were rejected before filming began. When presented with the original draft lyric, Garland, her co-star Tom Drake and director Vincente Minnelli criticized the song as depressing, and asked Martin to change the lyrics. Though he initially resisted, Martin made several changes to make the song more upbeat. For example, the lines "It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past" became "Let your heart be light / Next year all our troubles will be out of sight". Garland's version of the song, which was also released as a single by Decca Records, became popular among United States troops serving in World War II; her performance at the Hollywood Canteen brought many soldiers to tears.In 1957, Frank Sinatra asked Martin to revise the line "Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow." He told Martin, "The name of my album is A Jolly Christmas. Do you think you could jolly up that line for me?" Martin's new line was "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough." Martin made several other alterations, changing from the future tense to the present, so that the song's focus is a celebration of present happiness, rather than anticipation of a better future. On The Judy Garland Show Christmas Special, Garland sang the song to her children Joey and Lorna Luft with Sinatra's alternate lyrics.
In 2001, Martin, occasionally active as a pianist with religious ministries since the 1980s, wrote an entirely new set of lyrics to the song with John Fricke, "Have Yourself a Blessed Little Christmas," a religious version of the secular Christmas standard. The song was recorded by gospel female vocalist Del Delker with Martin accompanying her on piano.
In 2002, NewSong lead singer Michael O'Brien noted the line "through the years, we all will be together if the Lord allows," which was part of the original song, was purged and replaced with "if the fates allow" to remove religious reference when the song was released. He noted while a pastor in a California church in 1990 that he had met Martin, who played piano at the church where O'Brien was serving for an evening, and the pastor was told, "That's the original way I wrote it, so I want you to sing it this way."
Collaboration controversy
Although Ralph Blane is credited with writing the music for many of Martin's songs, Martin claimed in his autobiography that he wrote both music and lyrics to all of the songs in Meet Me in St. Louis and that "all of the so-called Martin and Blane songs,, were written entirely by me without help from Ralph or anybody else." His explanation for allowing Blane equal credit for the songs was: "I was reasonably content to let him receive equal screen credit, sheet music credit, ASCAP royalties, etc., mainly because this bizarre situation was caused by my naive and atrocious lack of business acumen."Popularity
's 1944 version of the song reached No. 27 on the Billboard charts.The lyrics Garland sang in Meet Me in St. Louis have been recorded with only slight variations by a number of artists, including Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, The Pretenders, James Taylor, and Luther Vandross.
In 1963, Sinatra's third recording of the song, recorded for a seasonal compilation album of the same name by various Reprise artists and backed by popular Hollywood arranger Gus Levene and his orchestra, was controversially used by director Carl Foreman in his anti-war film The Victors as the soundtrack backdrop to the execution by firing squad of a G.I. deserter in a bleak, snowy field on Christmas Eve - a scene inspired by the real-life execution of Pvt. Eddie Slovik in 1945. The New York Times film reviewer, while recognising the power of the scene, complained that "the device itself is almost as specious and sentimental as what is trying to mock".
In 2011, Michael Bublé's version reached number 98 on the top 100 charts.
In 2016, Josh Groban reached number 1 on the US Adult Contemporary charts with a version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
In 2018, John Legend reached number 1 on the US Adult Contemporary charts with a version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas featuring Esperanza Spalding.
In December 2018, Azealia Banks included a version of this song on her holiday EP, Icy Colors Change.
On December 17, 2018, former Journey frontman Steve Perry released a cover version of this song during his musical comeback.
On November 26, 2019, Richard Ashcroft launched a version of this song in all the digital stores.
Lorna Luft version
In 1995, American singer Lorna Luft recorded a cover of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" which was reworked as a "virtual duet" with her mother Judy Garland. It was produced by Gordon Lorenz and released as a CD single only in the UK by Carlton Sounds label. A music video featured Luft performing the song in a studio interspersed with classic footage of Garland singing to a then 11-year-old Luft on the 1963 Christmas episode of her CBS variety television series The Judy Garland Show, all placed on the same screen.Luft's version of the song peaked at number 100 on the UK Singles Chart on December 16, 1995.
;Track listing
- "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas " – 3:16
- "Me And My Shadow / The Nearness Of You" – 4:38
- "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas " – 4:02
Sam Smith version