If the fates allow

I watched "Meet Me in St. Louis" last week on Turner Classic Movies. It isn't one of my favorite movies but I put up with it just to see Judy Garland sing, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to Margaret O'Brien at the end. It's one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs (and I have a lot of all-time favorite Christmas songs).

Made in 1944, the plot is essentially this: Things are rosy in St. Louis until father announces that his bank is transferring him to New York. Isn't this wonderful? Well, apparently not as far as the rest of the family is concerned. Facing their last Christmas in St. Louis, big sister Judy sings this melancholy song on Christmas Eve to an almost inconsolable 7-year old Margaret.

The song as we all know it today is kind of sad yet hopeful but the original lyrics written for the movie were almost suicidal:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Pop that champagne cork
Next year we may all be living in New York

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

But at least we all will be together
If the Lord allows
From now on, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

Judy Garland was very upset with these lyrics fearing that audiences would not take kindly to her singing such a dark song to a little girl, and she complained to composer Hugh Martin. Martin reminded her that the girls are supposed to be sad to which Garland responded, "Yes, but not that sad." So back to the drawing board (or, more likely, to the piano) and the result was this:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us once more

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

But even this isn't the end of the story. In 1957, Frank Sinatra was recording a jolly Christmas album called, uh, "A Jolly Christmas" and asked Hugh Martin if he could change that "muddle through somehow" line because, well, it isn't all that jolly, is it? [In fact, Sinatra had actually recorded the "muddle" version ten years earlier.] Anyway, Martin (who must have been getting tired of people wanting to mess with his song) came back changing, "Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow" to "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough" and this is the lyric that you usually hear today, regardless of who is singing it. One notable exception is James Taylor's version recorded in the fall of 2001, not long after 9/11, which brings back the bittersweet "muddle" line.

AND at the risk of ending on a sad note, we bid a fond farewell to Dennis Yost who died Sunday at age 65. If you don't recognize his name, you probably recognize it as it was usually heard - Dennis Yost & The Classics IV whose 60s hits ihcluded "Stormy," "Spooky," "Traces" and, a little less well-known, "Every Day With You Girl." Bring back that sunny day.