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The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

December 15, 2017 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

On the third day of the Twelve Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas, Saturday, December 16, 2017, the song of the day is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

About This Song

Today’s song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane for the 1944 movie Meet Me In St. Louis, where it was introduced by Judy Garland. In a Twitter conversation in November 2012, Tony Bennett said that “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is his favorite Christmas song. It’s definitely mine as well, and not just because I was born in the same town and attended the same college as its composer, Hugh Martin.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded this version for the 2008 album A Swingin’ Christmas, with Lee Musiker on piano and Harold Jones on drums, as well as the Count Basie Big Band.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Listen to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas on Spotify. Tony Bennett · Song · 2008.


“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” as well as A Swingin’ Christmas, is available from iTunes.

About Today

As it is our custom to have a video each Saturday, I’m pleased to present Judy Garland singing today’s song to a very young Margaret O’Brien. Miss O’Brien won an Academy Award as Outstanding Child Actress for her work in this film.

Filed Under: Song of the Day, The 12 Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas Tagged With: 12 Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas, A Swingin' Christmas, Hugh Martin, Judy Garland, Meet Me In St. Louis, Tony Bennett

December 20, 2016 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Today is the seventh day of The Twelve Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas.
The song of the day for Tuesday, December 20, 2016 is “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”

About This Song

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was written by Hugh Martin for the 1944 Judy Garland film Meet Me In St. Louis. In a Twitter conversation in November 2012, Tony Bennett said that “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is his favorite Christmas song. It’s mine as well.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” for his 2008 album A Swingin’ Christmas.” It’s a lovely arrangement.

I grew up in the same town as Hugh Martin: Birmingham, Alabama and we both attended the same liberal arts college, Birmingham-Southern College. He used to visit the music department on campus whenever he was came home to visit and was always so gracious and encouraging to students, including your author.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Listen to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas on Spotify. Tony Bennett · Song · 2008.


“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” as well as A Swingin’ Christmas, is available from iTunes.

As a special treat today, here is a 21-year-old Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to Margaret O’Brien. Just a little setup: the father of the family has accepted a promotion in his job which means relocating the family to New York. This is especially hard news on the youngest child, played by Miss O’Brien. No worries … they stay in St. Louis and all is well. Miss O’Brien won a special Juvenile Academy Award for her performance.

Filed Under: Song of the Day Tagged With: A Swingin' Christmas, Hugh Martin, Judy Garland, Meet Me In St. Louis, Tony Bennett

December 21, 2015 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

On the eighth day of the Twelve Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas, Monday, December 21, 2015, the song of the day is “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”

About This Song

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane for the 1944 movie Meet Me In St. Louis, where it was introduced by Judy Garland.
In a Twitter conversation in November 2012, Tony Bennett said that “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is his favorite Christmas song. I’d have to say it’s mine as well.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” for his 2008 album A Swingin’ Christmas.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Listen to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas on Spotify. Tony Bennett · Song · 2008.


“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” as well as A Swingin’ Christmas, is available from iTunes.

Here’s Judy Garland singing this lovely song, from Meet Me In St. Louis

Filed Under: Song of the Day, The 12 Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas Tagged With: A Swingin' Christmas, Hugh Martin, Judy Garland, Meet Me In St. Louis, Ralph Blane

September 29, 2015 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

The song of the day for Tuesday, September 29, 2015 is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

About This Song

Today’s song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” was written in 1943 by Hugh Martin (music) and Ralph Blane (lyrics). It was introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 movie Meet Me In St. Louis. In a Twitter conversation in November 2012, Tony Bennett said that “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is his favorite Christmas song.

About This Version

You’re correct: this is September, not December. It is not yet time for the Annual Twelve Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas celebration. Though I suspect it might be here sooner than many of us would care to think. I mean, we’re still have 80 degree days here in Portland.

A few weeks back, I thought it might be fun to start presenting songs in Tony’s career, starting in 1946 with “St. James Infirmary,” to pick one song from each year, up to today. I’ve been doing this five days a week, Monday through Friday. Saturdays and Sundays have their own themes as well: Saturday I present a song and a video and on Sundays I pick a song that Mr. Bennett has recorded more than once and present them together.

Today is 1968 and there is no album more important in Bennett’s career for that year than Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album. Critics have noted that Snowfall is not only an excellent Christmas album, but an excellent and outstanding album in its own right. It marked the first of Tony Bennett’s collaborations with the noted composer, conductor and orchestrator Robert Farnon.

And from that album is my favorite Christmas song of all time: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Like the composer, Hugh Martin, I too am from Birmingham, Alabama and, also like the composer, I studied at Birmingham-Southern College. By the time I started college in 1968, Hugh Martin was a legend at my college. When he was visiting Birmingham, he would visit the campus. I met him several times at the music department and would sometimes see him visiting other professors. (I will put a plug in for the Alabama Tony Bennett connection here: arranger Marion Evans, whose work as an arranger I feature often, is also from Alabama and also attended Birmingham-Southern. What can I say–they had and still have a fantastic music department.)

Tony Bennett recorded “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” on October 1, 1968 in New York at the CBS 30th Street Studio. The album Snowfall was released soon afterwards. The album featured many of the same musicians that were used for his album of the previous year, Tony Makes It Happen!, including Milt Hinton, John Bunch and Joe Soldo.

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is an outstanding song. In the same way that “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” transcends that city and speaks to everyone all over the world, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is as much or more about home and family as it is the holiday. Whether it’s Tony Bennett singing it or Judy Garland, you won’t find a better song or a better performance anywhere.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Listen to Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas on Spotify. Tony Bennett · Song · 1968.


“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” as well as Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album, is available from iTunes.

Filed Under: Song of the Day Tagged With: 1968, Birmingham-Southern College, Hugh Martin, Judy Garland, Marion Evans, Meet Me In St. Louis, Ralph Blane, Robert Farnon, Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album

December 21, 2014 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

On The Eighth Day of a Tony Bennett Christmas

On the eighth day of a Tony Bennett Christmas, he sings for us “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was written in 1943 by Hugh Martin, with lyrics by Ralph Blane.It was introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 movie Meet Me In St. Louis. In a Twitter conversation in November 2012, Tony Bennett said that “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is his favorite Christmas song. It is also a favorite of your author, who shares both a home town (Birmingham, Alabama) and an alma mater (Birmingham-Southern College) with Hugh Martin. He was a frequent visitor to both the theater and music departments when he visited home and was always very supportive of our work. Merry Christmas, Mr. Martin.

Tony Bennett first recorded “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in 1968 for Snowfall. Today’s version is from A Swingin’ Christmas, released in 2008.

http://open.spotify.com/track/0Z52gqfioTOy0goZIrjcNy
“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” as well as A Swingin’ Christmas, is available from iTunes.

And who can forget the luminous Judy Garland, singing this song to a young Margaret O’Brien in Meet Me In St. Louis.

Filed Under: The 12 Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas Tagged With: A Swingin' Christmas, Hugh Martin, Judy Garland, Ralph Blane

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