Judy Garland as Esther Smith in Meet me in St. Louis(1944), “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” I can’t get through this song (either hearing it or singing it) without sobbing–even without seeing Tootie’s snowmanicidal tantrum in this clip. 1944 was a year in which a lot of people wouldn’t be seeing their loved ones for Christmas–or ever again.
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Historiann 
I’m with you on this one, sister. What’s bizarre is the more modern remakes of the song that try to make it sound happy and sort of soft rock. Did those people just not listen to the lyrics?
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Me too, Historiann!! If you want upbeat, go with that one that says “From Atlantic to Pacific, everything’s terrific…” or whatever, blanking on the title.
Happy holidays everyone. I’m heading for the road myself in just a few.
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With you all the way on the sadness of this song–and I can’t watch the decapitation of the snowmen.
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Just imagine if they had kept the original lyrics like “Have yourself a merry little Christmas/It may be your last…. Faithful friends who were dear to us/Will be near to us no more”! (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1569872,00.html)
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Yeah, Dr. Crazy–it’s not a happy-happy song at all. I can see a punk remake, but rock/pop/happy-happy just ain’t right.
I’m hearing Bob Mould sing the song in my head now. Now, that’s a guy who’s dealt with some serious depression.
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I’ve been putting together a Christmas playlist, and made sure I put this song on it. I only recently discovered how sad it is – it’s like I had never listened to it before. I put it on my playlist not because I’m sad but because I want to remind myself of all the people I know who are sad, and whose sorrow is compounded 100x by the glittery snowy joyfest of Christmas.
There’s a really lovely Sarah McLachlin cover, if you like her sound.
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@Dr. Crazy – No they changed the lyrics. Sinatra asked for a rewrite to accommodate his album “A Jolly Christmas” so the lyricist wrote new upbeat lyrics (NPR rebroadcast this story recently). It was the second time the lyrics were changed as John pointed out above. The wikipedia entry has the details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_Yourself_a_Merry_Little_Christmas
Growing up, I never really cared for the song being only familiar with the Sinatra lyrics. I love these. I think I’ll have to watch Meet me in St. Louis over break. I don’t know how I missed it growing up and chalk it up to my parents shielding me from anti-NY bias.
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This is my favourite Christmas movie- watch it every year.
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I’m going to have to nominate “Fairytale of New York” as the most melancholy Christmas song.
If not the most melancholy, then surely the most awesome:
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I agree — I cry with this one too. I love the song (and movie). My grandmother had me watch it on TV when I was about 6, and I was completely freaked out by the Halloween scene, and the Christmas scene is just so sad.
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I’m with Dr. J on Fairytale of New York. Melancholy and angry all mashed up, sometimes is what you need.
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IIRC, Fairytale of New York is pretty foul-mouthed and not at all for the kiddies. (Like most Pogues songs?)
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not at all for the kiddies Well, it’s gritty.
In the last year I’ve talked with my kiddies about the death by drug overdose of a friend’s father and about why we don’t see anymore an adult whom they adore (who also turns out to be a sexual predator). In the context of our lives, Fairytale of New York seems okay.
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Wow, truffula. That’s a lot of heavy stuff for a couple of little kids. (Or even for you, a grownup, quite frankly.)
I feel like my life is a Walt Disney or Frank Capra movie by comparison, only without the struggles/adversity/filibusters/suicidal despair up front.
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heavy stuff
The thread that runs through all these conversations is compassion. We can love these people even while we see what is hurtful and unhealthy in their actions, and indeed, for both their sake and our own, we should love them. It isn’t always easy but it is always right.
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Agreed, I tear up every time I watch that scene. I was familiar with the song before I saw the movie, but never realized the lyrics or the sadness until I saw Judy Garland singing it (maybe I was listening to ones with the lyrics re-written). I guess it inspires the “soldier on” and “suck it up” attitude I think we, as a culture, are good at even through historically troubled times. I never connected it to the war, now I’m guaranteed to cry even more next time I see this.
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When I was back there in colledge it was an urban legend, maybe a stoner’s urban legend (and before the term “urban legend” entered our lexicons) that Walt Disney was autopsied after his death and that his lungs were found to be something like “caked with cocaine residues.” Not sure whether we really believed it even then, but it did provoke a few mirthful coughing fits.
I was thinking this morning that I should nominate “Merry Little Christmas” as a nice balanced medium point between the treacly and the teary.
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