What film is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas in?

Q: Who has covered Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?

In 2011, Michael Bublés version reached number 98 on the top 100 charts. In 2012, Sufjan Stevens covered the song and released it on his 2012 Christmas album, Silver and Gold. In 2016, Josh Groban reached number 1 on the US Adult Contemporary charts with a version of the song.

Ross K. Baker

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The original lyrics were not so cheery
'Endurance will bring us closer'
Who has covered Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?
Was Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas a sad song?
When did Frank Sinatra recorded Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?
What key is Frank Sinatra Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas in?

Radio stations that feature Christmas songs at this time of year will play — many times and by many different artists — a song from a popular film that premiered in 1944. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was sung by Judy Garland in the movie “Meet Me in St. Louis,” about a family forced to move from their beloved home in St. Louis by their father’s transfer to New York. Judy Garland sings the song to her younger sister, played by Margaret O’Brien, to comfort her about the impending move.

Unlike most Christmas songs that are cheery but emotionally shallow, this song captures the pain and sacrifice so many American families were enduring in that dreadful winter more than seven decades ago — although the war itself is not mentioned. It is a song uniquely suited to Christmas 2020, overshadowed like Christmas 1944 by death and grief and uncertainty.

As we entered the new year of 2020 with anticipation and hope, so did the Americans of 1944 watching the triumph of the Allied armies in Western France and the headlong retreat of the German army to the safety of the heavily fortified Siegfried line on the French-German border. One could almost give credence to the hopeful boast of some soldiers that they would be home by Christmas.

The original lyrics were not so cheery

That hope was dashed by the Battle of the Bulge, which was fought just about the time U.S. audiences were seeing “Meet Me in St. Louis” in neighborhood theaters throughout the country. With American forces in disarray and final victory an iridescent dream, families saw a film about separation, loss and dashed hopes.

The words of the song that Judy Garland sang, as she and Margaret O’Brien gazed wistfully out of the second-floor window of the home they would soon be forced to leave, poignantly expressed the feelings of Americans in darkened theaters: “Someday soon we all will be together, if the fates allow. Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow, so have yourself a merry little Christmas now.”

Who has covered Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?

In 2011, Michael Bublé's version reached number 98 on the top 100 charts. In 2012, Sufjan Stevens covered the song and released it on his 2012 Christmas album, Silver and Gold. In 2016, Josh Groban reached number 1 on the US Adult Contemporary charts with a version of the song.

Was Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas a sad song?

But unlike almost everything else in rotation on FM pop radio through December, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is, deep down, crushingly sad. It's so melancholic that some artists have been trying to rob the song of its emotional core for three quarters of a century.

When did Frank Sinatra recorded Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?

The Frank Sinatra version In 1947, Sinatra recorded a version, arranged by Axel Stordahl, that included Martin's original lyrics, including the final lines: “Someday soon we all will be together/If the fates allow/Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow/So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.”