Okay, fill-in the missing lyric:
Through the years, we all will be together,
If the fates allow;
-------------------------------,
And Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Now.
Did you sing a line about a star and a bough? You did, didn't you! That's cool. It's Sinatra's line, you know that, right?
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas was written for the 1944 film Meet Me In St. Louis. None other than the great Judy Garland sang it, but the tune was really a bummer. So, in 1957, when Frank Sinatra set out to record his Christmas album over at Capitol Records, he called the composer Hugh Martin and requested a re-write, and so, "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough" replaced the glum "From now on, we'll have to muddle through somehow."
I was the guest on an interesting internet radio show a few nights ago. I told the Sinatra/Garland/Martin song story and a caller-fresh from doing online research- called to correct me. It was kinda funny because I had actually written the article the caller used to try to discredit me, only he had misread it; I had listed the original Judy Garland lyrics that were too gloomy for the movie and then pointed out the changes.(I also contributed to the wiki-wiki-wikipedia article.) In the film, Judy Garland was to sing "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last." I mean- wow, that's a downer. I also mentioned that the film's director was none other that the great Vincente Minnelli, the dad of Liza. (Garland and Minnelli married in 1945).
The radio interview went okay, I guess. I wasn't in studio but rather phoned it in and when you do it that way, you never know what's what. But, after the smartypants apologized, a nice lady chimed-in to tell a story about working with Judy Garland at MGM. And then, a longtime Las Vegas woman called to say that she had been interested in my "career" since watching me "several times" on Name That Tune. (I suspect that instead of 'career,' she prolly meant to say 'keester' but I was flattered by my heavily medicated fan anyway).
I then told of being at Liza Minnelli's home at Christmastime and her telling me that 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' was almost CUT from the movie and reminded me that 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' damn near didn't make it into her mom's iconic musical The Wizard of Oz. Wow!
If you were wondering, Liza told me she, too, just loved Uncle Frank's 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,' especially the one he recorded in the 60's.
HOUSE OF H2O is a place I can come to and write in the first person. I am grateful to you for allowing me to do that, and here's my promise for 2010 and beyond: I'm going to keep on keeping it real.
Happy Holy Days.
Willie Watters
LAS VEGAS
