"He'll be coming down the chimney down"

This one was discussed last year, but it's always good for a laugh. I sometimes get the feeling that songwriters have trouble coming up with the right word in a particular line, and failing to find it, are forced to throw in something that rhymes and "sort of" makes sense. Or perhaps Andy Williams repeats the word "down" so we won't be confused and think Santa's coming "up" the chimney? Another one that's always made me wince is "Have yourself a merry little Christmas.....now!" Now? Why now? Christmas is two weeks away, can't I be a grinch until then? Other than in this song, I've never heard anyone say "Merry Christmas.....now!" I would never command anyone to have a merry anythying. I guess they needed a word that rhymes with "bough", and this was the best they could do. How about, "Have yourself a merry little Christmas plow?"

 

A bit of context. The song is from the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis, which covers a year in the life of a St. Louis family, the Smiths, leading up to the World's Fair of 1904.

Shortly before Christmas, Mr. Smith learns he is being promoted to a job in his firm's New York office. The news is not well received by the family. In one scene, the youngest daughter, Tootie (played by Margaret O'Brien), is particularly distraught as she looks out her bedroom window over a family of snowmen she has built. If the family moves, she wonders, how will Santa know where to find them next Christmas? Older sister Esther, played by Judy Garland, sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." The song was meant to be reassuring -- the message being that by this time next year they'd have gotten over the pain of being uprooted. But in the meantime, "we'll have to muddle through somehow."

Rather than being reassured, Tootie becomes more upset, runs out into the yard and destroys the family of snowmen. Seeing this, Mr. Smith relents and refuses the promotion. The family stays in St. Louis, not only for Christmas, but for the following year's World's Fair and the foreseeable future.

As originally written, the song's message was a bit more like "seize the day," with a first line of "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last" and "faithful friends that are dear to us will be near to us no more." But Garland thought the lyrics were too dark, and told composer Hugh Martin so. He responded that he thought the girls were supposed to be sad in that scene. Yes, she countered, but not that sad. Martin relented.

In either context, the line makes sense. "Have yourself a merry little Christmas now" means either "in the meantime" or "while you still can."

Flash forward a few years, to 1957, and Frank Sinatra is cutting a new version of it for his LP A Jolly Christmas. Once again, Hugh Martin is asked, can't you lighten up the words a bit? So the "muddle through somehow" line becomes "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough." "Once again as in olden days" (as originally written, "No good times like the olden days") "becomes "Here we are as in olden days." References to next year become "from now on." "Someday soon" became "through the years."

With the revisions Sinatra sought, I'm inclined to agree the "now" may seem out of place.

 

Meanwhile, "comin' down the chimney down" has irritated me for years, and continues to do so. Poor songcraft indeed.

 

Very irritating

 

What song is this "coming down the chimney down" line from, eh?

 

The Andy Williams travesty, "The Holiday Season"...

"whoopty-doo, and dickory-dock", indeed...

 

And way overplayed again this year.

 

Somehow I've missed ever hearing that song. Sounds like I should consider myself lucky.

 

That's a very interesting overview of the song. Thanks for posting it. I did notice that James Taylor used the "muddle through somehow" lyric in his recent version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqYGtYunJus

 

It's worth noting that, when Sinatra next recorded HYAMLC in 1963, he reverted back to the more somber "muddle through somehow" lyric. The reason: The song was used in the soundtrack of the Carl Foreman film The Victors—as a backdrop to a very grim scene in which a deserter is executed on Christmas Day. The "jolly" version of the lyrics certainly did not fit the scene. (Sinatra does not appear as an actor in the star-studded antiwar movie.)

A few months later, Frank re-recorded the song for Reprise Records with the same lyrics and arrangement (by Gil Grau). It was released on a little-known multi-artist LP titled (Frank Sinatra and His Friends Want You To) Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

 

That is indeed interesting. If people today could hear Sinatra's familiar gentle voice beginning the song, and then hear him sing "It may be your last", I imagine there would be some double takes, big time!

 

One of Archie Bunker's favorite expressions on "All In The Family" was "whoopty-doo", and I'm guessing it was inspired by this song.

 

Though I hate to admit it, I like the song too, in spite of the goofy lyrics.

 

Perhaps by the same songwriting team who gave us "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight"?

 

Better than coming down the chimney up, I guess.

 

And in this ever changing world in which we live in, I have to hear this song at least twice a day, since the lady in my office who controls the radio insists on locking in the All-Christmas Music station!

 

In the Christmas vein:

Winter Wonderland: "Later on we'll conspire as we dream by the fire." What's the conspiracy?

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: "There'll be scary ghost stories . . . ." Huh? Maybe like the ones Scrooge saw?

Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You: "From grownup to minor, nothing could be finer." Speaks for itself.

 

Yeah, I always loved that "scary ghost stories" bit. Since all these holidays come near the end of the year, I guess we can run Halloween in with Christmas.

 

Better than "Macca's" Xmas excrement!

 

Who asked?

 

That's debatable...

 

1. "Conspiring" = planning a future together.

2. I was gonna grouse about that crap next. It's an obvious alluding to A Christmas Carol, which is the only example I could think of either. What are these Williamses doing scaring the crap out of their kids on the holidays for...

3. It's either a Benny Mardones, "Into-The-Night" moment, or it's talking about parent trying to give their kids back some of their lost "magic" of Christmas.

 

Isn't this the same group of Posters that were cranky about all Xmas tunes last week?

Anyway, I've figured Andy was gettin' all jazzy on this little ditty, hence the 2nd "down" in the lyric. I get to finger snapping and hum along when this one gets piped through the mall speakers while I'm shopping...