"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" - Original Lyrics

We've been getting Entertainment Weekly for free this past year, since signing up with yourmusic.com. I rarely read it, but found myself thumbing thru it this morning during breakfast. I came across a neat little article about the history of this Christmas classic-that-almost-wasn't!

As we all probably know, it was written for Judy Garland to sing to Margaret O'Brien in the movie, Meet Me In St. Louis. Judy's version is stunning - I can't hear it without seeing that scene from the movie in my mind. Not counting John Denver & The Muppets (ya gotta love Rowlf), my second favorite version is by Frank Sinatra. Now I know why!

Here are the original, never-recorded lyrics that Hugh Martin wrote for Judy to sing. Luckily for us, she & Tom Drake talked him into revising them - something he did again in 1957 for Frank. The link to the article with 3 sets of lyrics follows.

Dexter

ORIGINAL VERSION
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Pop that champagne cork
Next year we may all be living in New York
No good times like the olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us no more
But at least we all will be together
If the Lord allows
From now on, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now


http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1569872_4_0_,00.html

 

Pretty dark indeed...

 

Wow, that is depressing.

 

The only thing that article got wrong was the year of A Very Special Christmas; it came out in 1987, not 1989...

You just know that someone's going to sing the original version for next year, now that they've been publicized. I could imagine Kurt Cobain, if he were still around, singing those lyrics.

It's been interesting over the years to hear the numerous versions of the song, who has chosen to muddle through and who has chosen to hang the star. What is cool is that both versions work.

 

Frank Sinatra also sang the very same set of lyrics on his Columbia 78-RPM set called "Christmas Songs By Sinatra" in the late '40's (The set was later re-issued on a 10" lp,then on a 12" lp as "Christmas Dreaming" ,In 1952.(or is it '53?)

 

PU! Thank goodness Judy talked them out of that version!

Derek

 

And it would've been particularly popular in New York