I’d like to talk for a moment about the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” It’s a good song, to be sure; you won’t hear me saying otherwise. But it’s a real downer of a song, about how this Christmas is really gonna be pretty much a bummer. Or, at least, it’s supposed to be.

See, there are two sets of lyrics used for the song. The changes are small and subtle, but they alter the whole meaning. Now, in my collection I’ve got nine different recordings of the song: versions by Carnie and Wendy Wilson, James Taylor, Twisted Sister, Dave Sevillie of Alvin and the Chipmunks, John Denver and the Muppets, Frank Sinatra, Amy Grant, Linda Ronstadt and, of course, the original version by Judy Garland. Of these, only Judy’s uses the superior, more somber lyrics. (James Taylor’s kind of does, but I’ll come to that in a minute.)

Consider these lyrics as you probably always think of them:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on our troubles will be out of sightNow look at the key difference in how Judy Garland first sang it:
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sightThere’s another key point in the song where changes are made. We usually hear the words like this:
Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest boughThe true lyrics are as follows:
Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehowLook at that. Someday soon we all will be together. But not today, buddy! And we’ll just have to find some way to keep from killing ourselves until then. And the change from “next year all” to “from now on” is less noticeable but just as important. Our troubles aren’t going to be out of sight from now on. It’s going to be a whole year until we’re over our troubles! This year sucks!The changes make the words into something positive, it’s true, but I think they’re detrimental to the song. See, the original lyrics are about trying to have a merry Christmas in spite of all the crap that’s going on, and that’s a message I like. It’s Christmas so put a smile on, dang it! The altered words make the song’s message something like “Hey, you should be happy because everything’s going so great.” It makes you wonder why the music is so slow and bittersweet when the words are basically happy throughout. So what I’m saying is, stick with Judy Garland. She sings a more meaningful song.

Oh, yeah, I said I’d talk about James Taylor. What he does is basically split the difference between the two sets of words. He sings:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
in a year our troubles will be out of sight
From now onThat’s just cheating.

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