Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, a Singable Picture Book

Posted by: Sing Books with Emily on: December 31, 2011

In: Art of Singing a Song | Case for Singable Books | Heartfelt Musings | Lyrics | SBWE Sing-Along Program for Classrooms and Families | Sing Along Tracks | Singable Book Title | Singable Picture Book Video | Song History | Vocal Tracks
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One of the most beautiful and, some say, one of the saddest of all Christmas Songs was first sung by Judy Garland in the 1944 film, “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

But you can sing it now with this fun, cheerful little book,

*

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Words by Hugh Martin
Music by Ralph Blane
Illustrated by Liz Murphy
(This book comes with a CD with Bernadette Peters singing this classic Christmas song)

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I listened around a lot, and this is my favorite karaoke sing-along track:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004U1C5EO/ref=dm_dp_trk1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325172253&sr=1-6

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HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Words by Hugh Martin
Music by Ralph Blane

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
Our troubles will be out of sight.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
Our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years
We all will be together,
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough. *
And have yourself A merry little Christmas now.

*NOTE
Original lyric sung by Judy Garland:
“Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow”

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Holiday Scenes from, “Meet Me in St. Louis

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g4lY8Y3eoo

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Informative wiki article about the song:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_Yourself_a_Merry_Little_Christmas

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Reading the wiki article about the song (and Singable Picture Book), “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” it was interesting to learn that lyricist Hugh Martin altered a lyric at the behest of Frank Sinatra who requested the change to make the song more cheerful. So Mr. Martin changed the lyric from “We’ll have to muddle through somehow” to “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.” But the original lyric as sung by Judy Garland in the movie helps with a little variation I made up create a sweet New Year song. I was hoping to find an alternative, or something in addition to, “Auld Lang Sayne” to celebrate the coming of a New Year, but not much to be found.

Just off the top of my head, I sang my children a lullaby, “Have Yourself a Happy Little New Year,” a simple alteration of, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Doing this will send shivers down the spine of many a musical purist, but I think it’s OK as a sweet sentiment to a loved one:

HAVE YOURSELF A HAPPY LITTLE NEW YEAR

Have yourself a happy little new year.
Let your heart be light.
From now on our troubles will be out of sight.

Have yourself a happy little new year
Make the new year gay.
This year all our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us,
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years, we all will be together,
If the fates allow.
Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.
So have yourself a happy little new year now.

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Andrea Marcovicci is one of the greats of the American Cabaret genre. Few artists give such detailed study to the knowledge and passionate delivery of song. She’s also got a terrific sense of humor. Her performance patter introduction and performance of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” from her LIVE FROM LONDON album is an example. It’s track 17 on the album. She gives a great patter introduction with historical background and interesting information about the song and a wonderful cabaret performance.

http://www.amazon.com/Live-London-Andrea-Marcovicci/dp/B00000DLX2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326415320&sr=8-1

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