Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Sinatra, 1963
: music, December 19 2020 ▶
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", sang by Frank Sinatra in 1963, is indubitably the most appropriate song for this year's celebration. Very sad, nostalgic, reflecting on some bad times and hoping for better ones, the song may just fit as well in a doomsday scene, like the one portrayed in Terminator3's ending or a Fallout game. Nukes falling in slow motion, total destruction and carnage, radioactive silence...
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on, all 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
The character went through some terrible stuff lately, it is not a holiday time in his heart, he wishes all best to the others, but his internal suffering goes on. He is longing for his friends, probably the only stable point in his life, but remains very pessimistic of the future, relying only on the Fate to gather them again.Let your heart be light
From now on, all 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
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
The "hanging star" replaces even a bleaker line, from the original song: "Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow". Sinatra asked the author, Hugh Martin, if he could revise it with something more joyful. The song was written in 1943 for the musical "Meet Me in St. Louis" and Judy Garland's character is singing it to her sister, anticipating big changes in their life. The 1963 version is used also in an execution scene in the anti-war movie "The Victors", sparkling a lot of controversy.
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now
I chose Sinatra's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to be my Christmas song last year (I have one each year), but for 2020 I just could pick a better candidate. Covid-19 destroyed our lives and The World as we know it. Things will never be the same again. We are in a war-like situation, without having a war. The vaccines are just entering circulation, but nobody knows if they are not worse than the disease itself. People lost trust and faith in everything. The politicians hide their real agenda behind inadequate measures and "The Church" dug its head in the sand, instead of helping. I hope they burn in hell for this! And for the normal people: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!