"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Judy Garland
Judy Garland initially performed this popular song in the 1944 MGM musical "Meet Me in St. Louis". The song's harsh lyrics, composed by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, first turned Garland off.
"About a week before the scene when Judy sings it to me was to be shot, she glanced over the lyrics and asked, 'Don't you think these are excessively dark?' In 2006, Garland's co-star Margaret O'Brien told Entertainment Weekly, "I'm going to Hugh Martin and ask if he can lighten it up a touch."
"Have yourself a Merry little Christmas", they say. It may be your last. "Someday soon, if the gods allow, we shall all be together," became "Next year, we may all be living in the past." We'll have to bumble our way through till then."
Frank Sinatra requested another rewrite for his version a few years later to lighten it up even further. Despite this, the warmth and lovely sadness of this Christmas favorite persisted.
- Published in: 1944 by Leo Feist, Inc.
- Composer: Hugh Martin
- Lyricist: Ralph Blane
- Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnEqv8WcVq8
