The beautiful bittersweet song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, is one of the most beloved festive songs of all – but it nearly ended up discarded in the garbage bin.
Martin, a Broadway composer, started working a melody for the song but was struggling to create a bridge after completing the first 16 bars. “I found a little madrigal-like tune that I liked, but couldn’t make work, so I played with it for two or three days and then threw it in the wastebasket,” he recalled in 1989. Fortunately, Blane, who had been working in the adjacent room, heard the tune and told him it was too interesting to discard. The song was originally recorded by Judy Garland for her role in the 1944 movie Meet Me in St. Louis, and then again shortly after by Frank Sinatra in 1947.
Hundreds of top stars have cut their own versions of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” since Garland and Sinatra, including Tori Amos, Garth Brooks, Lady A, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, John Denver & The Muppets, Neil Diamond, and The Carpenters. Martin said that one of his favorite versions was by jazz singer Mel Tormé, who composed the famous “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” song. “Mel wrote a beautiful new verse for it, was really out of this world,” said Martin. When John Williams oversaw the score for the 1990 movie Home Alone, he asked Tormé to record a new version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
Although versions were recorded in the 50s and 60s by Dinah Shore, Doris Day, and Glen Campbell, the song also has a special appeal for modern singers. Chrissie Hynde believes the song “packs an emotional wallop,” while Bette Midler said its appeal was that the lyrics are “hopeful but full of melancholy.” Linda Ronstadt said she liked both the “muddle through” line and the bravado of the “hanging the shining star” replacement – so included both in her 2000 version. As for Martin, who was 96 when he died in 2011, he remained convinced that “muddle through” was the most honest version. “It’s just so kind of…down-to-earth,” he said late in life.