Whenever I hear a cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” that features the original lyrics from the 1944 Judy Garland film, “Meet Me in St. Louis,” they seem wrong. While so many Christmas songs have an element of forced saccharine happiness, the dourness of Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane’s original version is almost too much to bear. It’s such a 180-degree turn from the hollow positivity of the worst impulses of holiday music it’s almost comical. To me, making the choice to sing the original lyrics is giving a prepubescent middle finger to the spirit of the season. “Maybe instead of celebrating the commercialism of this manufactured season, we address how horrible everything actually is.” Perhaps that’s not always the case. Perhaps that’s never the case. All I know is that the very first draft of lyrics, which include the line, “Faithful friends who were dear to us will be near to us no more,” was too much for Judy Garland herself. She pleaded with Martin to change the lyrics. He relented, although the line, “Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow,” remained.
That is, it did until the Chairman of the Board had his say. Frank Sinatra had recorded a version for his small 1948 collection, “Christmas Songs by Sinatra,” and it contained the original lyrics. (This version is…just fine. The thin, pitiful violin intro ruins it, personally.) In 1957, Sinatra decided it was time to release a proper Christmas album. He enlisted famed composer, arranger, and conductor Gordon Jenkins, found the best session musicians, and in about two months, created an absolute classic, “A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra.” One of the 12 songs chosen for the album was “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” While the song was wonderful, there was something off about the lyrics in this context to Sinatra. He personally asked Martin to “jolly up” the song. With a slight change of lyrics, the version I have come to love and consider the best recording was born.
Despite the overall positive outlook of the rewrite, there is still something downhearted about this version. Jack Kerouac said Sinatra “always sings with profundity of feeling…it is the poetry of its time, and in it, in the longing of Sinatra’s soft tones and prayerful sustaining notes, is contained most of (America)’s own youthful melancholy.” This is no more evident than in his performance of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” The narrator tells the listener that no matter what may be happening in their life to allow themselves to be light, to not take things so seriously, to give themselves permission to enjoy. It’s a beautiful sentiment, one that embodies the holiday spirit. Things may have been bad in the past. The future may hold sorrow and loss. So have a merry little Christmas now.
Merry 