Each year, directly following Thanksgiving, we shift our focus to Christmas, start to see Christmas films pop up on our streaming services, and, most of all, we start to hear the familiar old Christmas music being pumped into the airwaves. I will confess that Christmas is not my favorite holiday season, for a variety of reasons, which makes me a bit of a contrarian Grinch. That said, I do find holiday music fascinating – many Christmas carols and classics have a rich history that is sometimes darker than we like to think. So, if you’ll indulge my humbuggery, I’d like to present a few interesting backstories on some of the compositional histories behind some of the season’s most beloved songs, starting with a little ditty called “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.“
Who Wrote ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’?
“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” is a very popular Christmas song that has been covered by many artists, ranging from John Legend to Ella Fitzgerald to Luther Vandross to Coldplay. The song was written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane for the 1944 film Meet Me In St. Louis and was initially performed by Judy Garland. The song is distinct in that it has a slower, more somber feel to it than many jovial Christmas Classics like “Jingle Bells,” “Deck The Halls,” or “We Wish You a Merry Christmas“.
The Original 1943 Lyrics Were Much Darker
The song has undergone many changes since it was first penned in 1943. According to the original lyric sheets, the song’s opening lyrics were, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas. It may be your last.”
If you’ve seen the song performed in the film, you’ll note that it was written to convey a family’s melancholy, celebrating their last Christmas in their home before moving to a new one. The song had a dark connotation expressed explicitly in the lyrics “have yourself a merry little Christmas, it might be your last. Next year we may all be living in the past.” And closed with the lyrics, “Someday soon, we all will be together if the fates allow. Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.”
According to the Library of Congress, even Judy Garland found the song to be too sad and asked that it be cheered up. So Martin rewrote the opening lyrics to “Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Let your heart be light. From now on, our troubles will be out of sight.” The original lyrics were rooted in despair, reflecting the film’s script and the context in which they were written. The song was written during America’s involvement in World War II, when many families were separated from loved ones over Christmas, unsure if they’d ever see them again.
Judy Garland Asked Hugh Martin to Rewrite It
Garland was struggling with acute emotional problems, addiction to amphetamines, and migraines during the filming of “Meet Me in St. Louis.” She was also having a relationship with the film’s director, which would result in marriage just a year or so later. The change in the lyrics may have been made to appease the film’s struggling star. Whatever the reason, the lyric change would prove incredibly important.
Changing the lyrics shifted the song’s focus from despair to comfort and warmth. While the lyrics changed, the composition did not, and it still reflected a melancholic tone, which is very evident today.
One of the most famous covers of the song was done by Frank Sinatra in 1957. Apparently, Sinatra also felt the song was too dark, even after the re-writes, so he changed the lyrics from “From now on, we’ll have to muddle through somehow” as it appeared in the film, to “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough” which is a lyric change that has stuck with the song in the majority of covers today.
Why ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ Still Sounds Sad
“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” is a song that was originally an honest reflection of the wartime anxiety many families were going through. The original song was bent and warped by the artists who performed the song into something just a bit happier and perhaps more marketable. It draws into focus the effect a set of lyrics can have on a composition.
The composition is still very sad-sounding; those of us who study music composition will note that this is mainly due to the slow tempo (around 60-70 bpm) and the descending chord contour. The descending melodies give the song a bittersweet, longing feel, even when paired with more positive lyrics. For example, the way the line “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” gently descends in pitch gives it a sense of longing that fits the overall feeling the song was trying to convey.
Even when the lyrics are changed to something more positive, sung to a melody crafted for sorrow, the result creates an ambiguous tonality that speaks to the complex emotions one might feel being away from loved ones, especially during the holiday season. In other words, the song’s lyrics added another layer of complexity that makes it stand out in the lexicon of Christmas music. It’s a simple song with a complex history that remains a holiday classic.
