My favorite Christmas song written in anything like the modern era — after songs like Silent Night, I mean, Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Adeste Fidelis — is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. It was first introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 film “Meet Me in St. Louis.” At first, Garland and her soon-to-be-husband, director Vincente Minelli, turned the song down because it was too depressing. Lyricist Hugh Martin made the necessary changes, but the song remains a sorrowful one. “Have yourself a merry little Christmas… next year all our troubles will be miles away… until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow.”
It was appropriate to the time. The world was at war. Many “faithful friends who are dear to us,” were themselves miles away, many in mortal danger. After the war, when Frank Sinatra recorded the best version of the song, the lyrics were reworked again. The “muddle through” line was ditched. “The name of my album is A Jolly Christmas,” Sinatra told Martin. “Do you think you could jolly up that line for me?”
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