Performer Jimmy Harris plays a mix of songs, both festive and non-festive, on the piano in the Coconut Room at the Palms.Some holiday songs are jammed with jingling bells and jolly holly rhymes all spattered with tinsel and glitz. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is not one of those songs. It’s more like a quiet grove of fir trees where snowflakes and moonlight shimmer hopefully in the darkness.
It became Tiffany Muff’s favorite Christmas song while she was a student at Southern Adventist University. It remains her favorite today.
The song first resonated with her when Muff was nursing a broken heart after dating a mean boyfriend. Christmas was stampeding toward her, and she was already homesick. Then she discovered the secret anthem for lonely Americans whose hearts are aching during the one holiday that demands laughter and joy, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the song’s national debut; Judy Garland sang it in the MGM musical “Meet Me in St. Louis” as World War II audiences were enduring separation from fathers, sons, brothers and husbands fighting and dying overseas.
The haunting melody and bittersweet lyrics allude to loss and uncertainty. “Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Let your heart be light, Next year all our troubles will be out of sight” it begins, the melody gentle, almost hesitant. It becomes stronger, almost urgent upon the lines; “Once again as in olden days, Happy golden days of yore, Faithful friends who are dear to us, Will be near to us once more. Someday soon, we all will be together, If the fates allow, Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.”
It is still one of America’s most performed Christmas songs, according to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
“A lot of Christmas songs are about jolliness and cheer, the smiling face and candy coating Christmas puts on regardless of what else is going on in life,” says Muff, a singer and artist known to many Chattanoogans as the executive producer of the Chattanooga Choo Choo music video filmed at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.
Entertainer Jimmy Harris says Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper" also mingles darkness and light like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."“’Merry Little Christmas’ feels like a genuine wish from the heart,” she says. “It doesn’t only speak of sad things but doesn’t ignore them either. Happy songs can lift the spirits. But sometimes facing the reality of a common sadness provides much-needed connectedness and comfort as well. Society tells us to not be too emotional, that vulnerability is bad. … Now I realize vulnerability is one of the most beautiful things there is. It takes strength, hope and courage.”
Hugh Martin wrote the song for Garland to sing to her baby sister in a scene where the little girl is crying because the family must move to New York, leaving their friends behind. The first lyrics Martin wrote were so bleak, Garland was terrified that the audience would hate her for singing such words to a sobbing child: “Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past.”
Martin replaced those spooky lyrics with the words that make this song a keeper.
“It’s like a friend saying, ‘I know everything isn’t perfect, but I hope you’re still able to find a smile and someone to be close to this Christmas,’ ” Muff says.
The music soars so powerfully on those lyrics that Chattanooga clarinetist Booker T. Scruggs II says he doesn’t think of it as a sad song.
“To me, it’s about hopefulness. That’s why I chose it for my new CD, “Let Heaven and Earth Rejoice,’ ” Scruggs says. “’Merry Little Christmas’ doesn’t commercialize. It doesn’t talk about Santa. It is a heavenly song.”
The 10-track CD, which is sold at LifeWay Christian Stores at Hixson and Hamilton Place, has a mix of songs about earthly enjoyment of Christmas (“Jingle Bell Rock,” “The Christmas Song”) and the divine (“We Three Kings,” “Go Tell It on the Mountain”).
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” has enticed some unlikely performers with its mixture of hopefulness and sorrow, including punk rocker Lee Ving. The Fear frontman recorded the song three years ago when he and his wife split. He told fans it was the only Christmas song he could bear to sing. Bob Dylan, Coldplay, Bette Midler, Lady Antebellum, Tori Amos and Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders all sang their own versions. Pop newcomer Sam Smith made entertainment news earlier this month with his beautiful but decidedly un-merry cover.
Frank Sinatra asked Martin to write a cheery version of the song for Sinatra’s Christmas album. Martin changed the hopes about reuniting with loved ones to the present tense and replaced the “muddle through” line with “hang a shining star upon the highest bough.” Many performers sing both the muddle and star verses to underline the song’s hope without losing the dark thread running though it.
Jimmy Harris, who has a regular gig as a pianist and singer at The Palms at Hamilton on Shallowford Road, could be considered an expert observer of what sort of songs engage an audience. He loves how thoughtfully and deeply an audience can respond to “Merry Little Christmas.” But he also believes that Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper” could become another Christmas classic that mingles darkness with light and stirs the listener’s heart.
“It’s about a homeless man who sells wrapping paper, ribbons of blue, pretty pencils to write I love you to one’s darling,” Harris explains. “The lyrics depict shoppers wondering if they should pause, then choosing to rush past him. After I finish singing it, there is a moment of silence. The melody is beautiful. The lyrics are sad, yet that’s why I think it lingers with people and they find themselves thinking about it after it’s done.”
Perhaps Harris has discovered that what the two songs share so deeply is an understanding of the Christmas spirit. One, written in a time of global war, is like the voice of a comforting friend with memories of friendship and the love that makes life meaningful and splendid. The newer song is an urgent reminder of how much a moment of compassion can mean to a stranger, particularly in a season that should be focused on warmth, kindness and connection as much as silver bells, reindeer and snowmen.
Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6391.