The dark original lyrics to ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’
Christmas songs are an unavoidable part of life – from November onwards, we are subjected to festive tunes every time we turn on the radio or pop to the shop. While some can be incredibly joyous and nostalgic, it is easy to quickly tire of many Christmas classics, which get recycled on repeat every year.
Yet, it is hard to dislike older staples, like ‘The Christmas Song’ or ‘Winter Wonderland’, which bring with them a timeless festive charm that is bound to warm the coldest of ‘Bah Humbug’ hearts. ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ is another classic that never gets old – a wistful and tender track with an innate bittersweetness to it.
The song was first performed by Judy Garland in Vincente Minnelli’s Meet Me in St. Louis, with Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane writing it specifically for the movie. Garland’s character, Esther, sings the song to her little sister, Tootie, when she is upset. Yet the festive classic almost took on a much darker tone before the actor requested some changes be made.
Garland was unsure of some of the lyrics, suggesting that Martin and Blane had made the song too melancholic. The actor took issue with the lines, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas/ It may be your last/ Next year we may all be living in the past.” The subtle allusion to death is hardly festive, so the writers agreed to alter the words to something less pessimistic.
Martin once revealed that MGM asked him to come up with new lines. “They said, ‘No, no – it’s a sad scene, but we want sort of an upbeat song, which will make it even sadder if she’s smiling through her tears.’” The song also contained bleak lyrics such as “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.”
The song’s bleak lyrics were changed to “Someday soon we all will be together, if the fates allow/ Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow,” adding a slight glimmer of hope.
When Frank Sinatra decided to cover the song in 1957, which is the version listeners perhaps recognise best, he requested that Martin write new lyrics that strayed even further away from the melancholy evoked in the original. Thus, we now get to sing along to considerably more cheerful lyrics like “Here we are as in olden days/ Happy golden days of yore/ Faithful friends who are dear to us/ Gather near to us once more.”
Listen to Garland’s version below.
