Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane wrote the song for Meet Me in St. Louis in 1944, where Judy Garland sings it to her small sister on the night the family is to leave St Louis. Martin's first lyric was bleaker still — it may be your last, next year we may all be living in the past — and Garland refused it, saying the audience would think her monstrous; he rewrote the lines under protest. Frank Sinatra asked for a further change in 1957, wanting something more cheerful, and got the shining star that most singers use today.