"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas": История одной песни

1943 song by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics. In 2007, ASCAP ranked it the third most performed Christmas song during the preceding five years that had been written by ASCAP members. In 2004 it finished at No. 76 in AFI's 100 Years 100 Songs rankings of the top tunes in North American cinema.

The song was written in 1943 The song first appeared in a scene in which a family is distraught by the father's plans to move to New York City for a job promotion, leaving behind their beloved home in St. Louis, Missouri, just before the long anticipated 1904 World's Fair begins. In a scene set on Christmas Eve, Judy Garland's character, Esther, sings the song to cheer up her despondent five year old sister, Tootie, played by Margaret O'Brien.

Some of the original lyrics penned by Martin were rejected before filming began. In 1957, when Frank Sinatra approached Martin to record the song, he asked him to revise the lyrics to promote more positive themes; he particularly pointed out the line "until then we'll have to muddle through somehow," saying "the name of my album is A Jolly Christmas. Do you think you could jolly up that line for me?" Martin's revised lyric was "hang a shining star upon the highest bough." Martin made several other alterations, changing from the future tense to the present, so that the song's focus is a celebration of present happiness rather than anticipation of a better future. (However, Sinatra had recorded the original song's lyrics in 1948.) On The Judy Garland Show Christmas Special, Garland sang the song to her children Joey and Lorna Luft with Sinatra's revised lyrics. In 2001, Martin, occasionally active as a pianist with religious ministries since the 1980s, wrote an entirely new set of lyrics to the song with John Fricke, "Have Yourself a Blessed Little Christmas," a religious version of the secular Christmas standard. The song was recorded by female gospel vocalist Del Delker with Martin accompanying her on piano. In a 2002 interview, NewSong lead singer Michael O'Brien claimed that the line "through the years, we all will be together if the Lord allows," was part of the original song but was purged and replaced with "if the fates allow" to remove religious reference when the song was released. O'Brien stated that while a pastor in a California church in 1990, he had met Martin, who played piano at the church where O'Brien was serving for an evening, and the pastor was told, "That's the original way I wrote it, so I want you to sing it this way."

Although Ralph Blane is credited with writing the music for many of Martin's songs, Martin claimed in his autobiography that he wrote both music and lyrics to all of the songs in Meet Me in St. Louis and that "all of the so called Martin and Blane songs (except for Best Foot Forward) were written entirely by me (solo) without help from Ralph or anybody else." His explanation for allowing Blane equal credit for the songs was: "I was reasonably content to let him receive equal screen credit, sheet music credit, ASCAP royalties, etc., mainly because this bizarre situation was caused by my naive and atrocious lack of business acumen." Tori Amos included an acoustic version of the song as the B side to her 1998 single "Spark". In 2009, Keyshia Cole reached number 58 on the US Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart with a version of the song. In 2011, Michael Bublé's version reached number 98 on the top 100 charts. This version would reach a new peak of 41 in 2023. In 2014, English singer Sam Smith released a cover version which debuted at number 90 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first time a version of the song had charted on the Billboard list. The song reached top ten on the US and Canadian adult contemporary charts and on the US Holiday chart. It also peaked inside the top forty in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. In 2016, Josh Groban reached number 1 on the US adult contemporary charts with a version of the song. In 2018, John Legend reached number 1 on the US adult contemporary charts with a version of the song from his album A Legendary Christmas, featuring Esperanza Spalding on duet vocals. In 2023, former Fifth Harmony members Ally Brooke and Dinah Jane released a new cover version of the song.