If you’ve never watched Meet me in St. Louis, there is a clip below of Judy Garland singing, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
Whether or not you’ve seen the movie, you know the song became a classic. But, don’t be mislead by the title. In the movie, Garland’s family is moving and I’ll warn you that the brief clip below is a bit depressing.
Reflecting on Garland’s melancholy performance, John Mark Reynolds reflects on the route to a truly Merry Christmas:
The holiday classic Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas as sung by Judy Garland may be the closest thing to refuting words with musical performance ever heard. You don’t have to know anything about Garland’s sad life to hear the pain in her voice.
She may promise we will muddle through somehow and that next year our troubles will be out of view, but her voice is torn and there is every doubt about merriness. Garland had one of those sad lives, made far worse by bad personal decisions, turned into something “great” by Hollywood. This bright, gifted woman was exploited by the entertainment industry, but also chose . . . badly.
Read the whole thing here.
