For example, the ominously dark lines “It may be your last/Next year we may all be living in the past” became “Let your heart be light/Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.” He eventually rewrote some to make the song more upbeat. At first sight, before filming began, Garland, co-star Tom Drake and director Vincente Minnelli dismissed the draft lyrics as depressing and asked a reluctant Martin to change them. Some of Martin’s original lyrics were rejected at the outset, the principal composer wrote in his autobiography, The Boy Next Door. It assures that “your troubles” will pass, that “happy golden days of yore” will return and “faithful friends who are dear to us” will “gather near to us once more.” “Through the years,” it declares, “we’ll always be together if the fates allow.” It was a song for its time, and all time, even these COVID times. On Christmas Eve, Garland’s character, Esther, sings it to cheer up her despondent sister, five-year-old Tootie (Margaret O’Brien).īut the lyrics make unmistakable links to the universal experience of innumerable families, friends and loved ones across nationalities and throughout the annals of war, touching on separation, loss, melancholy and fate. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” appeared in a scene in which a family is distraught over the father’s plan to leave their cherished home in St. The lyrics make unmistakable links to the universal experience. Of course, neither the song nor the movie makes any outward reference to the war. ![]() And that was just during the month of January. Around the time the song was written, a desperate Soviet Red Army was beating down German troops in Stalingrad, Jews mounted a doomed uprising in Poland’s Warsaw Ghetto, the war in the Pacific had begun its long march north to Japan, British forces captured Tripoli, and HMCS Ville de Quebec sank U-224 in the Mediterranean.
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