Alright, I confess—maybe it was that sojourn at the Coffee Bean last week that triggered the sentimentalist in me. After listening to them playing all those Christmas songs sung by the likes of Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, etc. I emerged feeling a wee bit woozy, but it was a nice, warm feeling inside me (and yeah, maybe the Ice Blended Coffee contributed to it too) Anyways, what better way to express it or let it out but through music, and so here’s my own personal recording and arrangement of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. This song was first sung by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. The lyrics were criticized as being too depressing in its original draft, so songwriter Hugh Martin made several changes. Here are the tweaked lyrics, in case you want to sing along with my playing:
Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yuletide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.
Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.
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.
I recorded all the backing tracks myself, putting in a sad muted trumpet first, followed by another solo trumpet. And I have another confession to make—I had actually wanted to modulate a half-step higher near the end, from C major to C sharp major. But as I was recording it, I detoured to A flat major instead. It sounded different but I liked it, so I left it in. Hope you enjoy this performance of mine.
If you’d like to listen to my piano-only version, it’s online here.
May the coming Christmas season fill all our hearts with love, peace, and joy.
Tags: Coffee Bean, Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Music, piano
The sentimentalist in me loves the whole picture — the Christmas music along with the snow and the Christmas header and colors of your blog. Too bad you can’t have the song playing in the background so that when we open your bloggy it would play continuously while we read.
Thanks for reminding me of the sentimental and happy parts of Christmas as I sometimes get jaded working retail and seeing the madness of the shopping public.
.-= Crystal´s last blog ..Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! =-.
Crystal, I could have the music playing when my link opens, but #1 some readers might not like having that, and #2 I need to find an appropriate plug-in (it’s not gonna happen today!)
I do agree that Christmas is just one big shopping hysteria for many folks. Me? I’d rather take it easy, spending time with the ones I love…:-)