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Christmas carols

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I realize these aren’t the most important questions in the world, but I’m stuck in an airport listening to Christmas carols and I have to ask: what is the reason for the strange changes to the lyrics of Christmas carols? Why does Frank Sinatra sing “hang a shining star upon the highest bough” when earlier versions (e.g. Ella) sang “until then we’ll have to muddle through some how”? Was this one of those important cultural changes, like putting all the God stuff on the money, that brought the Commies to their knees?

And why is “and pretend that he is Parson Brown” sometimes changed to “and pretend that he’s a circus clown”?

Update. Okay, I see that the answer to the second question is that “Winter Wonderland” has two verses.

Reader Interactions

110Comments

  2. 2.

    Rick Massimo

    I always thought that both of those lyrics were in both songs. It’s a first verse/second verse thing. Particularly the latter, which goes

    In the meadow we can build a snowman
    And pretend that he is Parson Brown
    He’ll say “Are you married?,” We’ll say, “No, man,
    But you can do the job when you’re in town”

    the first time, and

    In the meadow we can build a snowman
    And pretend that he’s a circus clown
    We’ll have lots of fun with Mr. Snowman
    Until the other kids knock him down

    the second time.

  3. 3.

    asiangrrlMN

    Um, DougJ? I think you’ve finally gone over the edge after reading all that mind-numbing stupidity from the Villagers. I hope you are taking a much-deserved vacation.

    P.S. I have no clue on the Christmas carols. Where are you headed?

  4. 4.

    Evolved Deep Southerner

    Gemma beat me to it. I think “Parson Brown” comes first and “circus clown” comes last.

  6. 6.

    gogol's wife

    Wikipedia (not Conservapedia, I know):
    In 1957, Frank Sinatra asked Martin to revise the line “Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow”. He told Martin, “The name of my album is A Jolly Christmas. Do you think you could jolly up that line for me?”[3] Martin’s new line, “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough,” has since become more widely recognized and sung than the original phrase.

  7. 7.

    mistamatic

    On Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, those are just the ends of two verses…not everyone sings both verses…kinda like the extra stuff in American the Beautiful. Few people know there’s more to the song!

  8. 8.

    beltane

    This is a timely post in light of the teabaggers’ new demand that public schoolchildren be forced to sing Christmas carols in school. I think the wingnuts have finally ruined Christmas for me. Happy Saturnalia to you and yours.

  10. 10.

    Zifnab

    And why is “and pretend that he is Parson Brown” sometimes changed to “and pretend that he’s a circus clown”?

    Who is John Galt Parson Brown?

  15. 15.

    MikeJ

    War on Xmas

    The Jerusalem Rabbinate also works each year to ensure restaurants and hotels receiving kosher certification from the Jerusalem Religious Council do not put up Christian symbols.
    ..
    According to a senior official in the kashrut department, this is done each year consensually, but that businesses which do not meet this requirement may find their kashrut certificate revoked.

  16. 16.

    DougJ

    How do you tell the difference in Parson Brown and the circus clown?

    One has a corn-cob pipe, the other is wearing two wet suits.

  17. 17.

    El Cid

    via teh wiki

    **************************

    …[W]hen presented with the original draft, Garland, her co-star Tom Drake and director Vincente Minnelli criticized the song as depressing:

    Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last,
    Next year we may all be living in the past
    Have yourself a merry little Christmas, pop that champagne cork,
    Next year we will all be living in New York.

    No good times like the olden days, happy golden days of yore,
    Faithful friends who were dear to us, will be near to us no more.

    But at least we all will be together, if the Fates allow,
    From now on we’ll have to muddle through somehow.
    So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

  18. 18.

    Robin G.

    @gogol’s wife:

    In 1957, Frank Sinatra asked Martin to revise the line “Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow”. He told Martin, “The name of my album is A Jolly Christmas. Do you think you could jolly up that line for me?”[3] Martin’s new line, “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough,” has since become more widely recognized and sung than the original phrase.

    Huh. I had no idea.

    I like the original version — done by Ella — more.

  21. 21.

    FlipYrWhig

    I never liked that Parson Brown weirdness. Who builds a snowman and pretends it’s a nosy clergyman? Or, worse, a flirtatious clergyman. Gah.

  23. 23.

    chuck

    In _Merry Little Christmas_ they took out “Lord” from the lyrics, and added “gay”. More evidence of the War on Christmas.

  26. 26.

    GReynoldsCT00

    @tamied:

    better than having those stupid barking jingle bell dogs in your head… eeek! I’m hoping that one gets outlawed.

  29. 29.

    Jim

    @gizmo:

    You may think you’re kidding, but

    Merry Hyatt, Tea Party Patriot, Wants Mandatory Christmas Carols In Public Schools
    The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner

  30. 30.

    Dave L

    Okay, then can anybody explain these lyrics?

    I’ll be home for Christmas,
    You can count on me
    Please have snow and mistletoe
    And presents on the tree…

    Sure, it scans better than “under the tree”, but has anyone ever put presents ON a Christmas tree?

    This has bothered me for a long, long time.

  32. 32.

    MikeJ

    I’m Mister White Christmas
    I’m Mister Snow
    I’m Mister Icicle
    I’m Mister Ten Below
    Friends call me Snow Miser
    What ever I touch
    Turns to snow in my clutch
    I’m too much!

  35. 35.

    GReynoldsCT00

    It’s not Christmas for me until I hear Springsteen’s version of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”

  37. 37.

    Matt Rubin

    Re: Winter Wonderland – The original bridge section, concerning marriage, was considered inappropriate for children in the early 1950s. The alternate bridge was added in 1953.

    Also, the traveling Parsons who moved from town to town performing weddings had been a feature of small-town American life in the 1920s and 30s, but was no longer considered very relevant to 1950s Americans.

    Thanks Wikipedia!

  39. 39.

    gypsy howell

    And presents on the tree… Sure, it scans better than “under the tree”, but has anyone ever put presents ON a Christmas tree?

    Easy: Gift cards or checks, stuck in the branches.

    Yeah, we run out of ideas for gifts in our house pretty quick.

  40. 40.

    El Cid

    @Jim: I want scenes of assistant coaches slamming yardsticks on desk as weeping 3rd graders moan their way through “Rudolph” and “Little Drummer Boy” as the Vice Principle checks in and says things like “Either you sing with some real joy or I’ll give you something to cry about“.

    And the satisfying 1920s / 1890s / 1950s dreamworld the Tea Partiers want will at that moment live again…

  41. 41.

    RobNYNY1957

    “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is one of the comparatively few carols that is a torch song in style and content.

  44. 44.

    Tom Hilton

    In Shawn Colvin’s version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, she switches one line around the second time: “faithful friends who are near to us, will be dear to us once more.” I always liked that little twist.

  45. 45.

    geg6

    I hate fucking ALL Christmas carols. All of them, without a single exception. And I will absolutely punch the next person who subjects me to them.

  49. 49.

    We Need New Gov't

    Here’s a fascinating little history of the changes one of our most popular Christmas songs underwent through revision (both Judy Garland & Frank Sinatra had a hand in it):

    There’s Something About Merry
    – The history of a popular holiday song — How ”Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” became one of the season’s most beloved songs
    Jan 08, 2007

    http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1569872,00.html

  53. 53.

    DougJ

    They’re now playing “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey. I’m sure no one will agree, but I think it is one of the better recent additions to the Christmas canon.

  57. 57.

    GReynoldsCT00

    Can we hear some love for Harry Connick Jr.? His original Christmas CD is a big favorite of mine.

  58. 58.

    tamied

    When I was a kid, we had a whole bunch of the Great Songs of Christmas Albums my mom got at the gas station with a fill-up. They’re the best. I still have them and they’re my favorite.

  59. 59.

    Tom Hilton

    @eemom: you’re thinking of “I Believe in Father Christmas” (sung to a Prokofiev tune).

    The Kinks’ “Father Christmas” is different:
    *************
    When I was small I believed in Santa Claus
    Though I knew it was my dad
    And I would hang up my stocking at Christmas
    Open my presents and I’d be glad

    But the last time I played Father Christmas
    I stood outside a department store
    A gang of kids came over and mugged me
    And knocked my reindeer to the floor

    They said:
    “Father Christmas, give us some money
    Don’t mess around with those silly toys.
    We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
    We want your bread so don’t make us annoyed
    Give all the toys to the little rich boys

    “Don’t give my brother a real trashy outfit
    Don’t give my sister a cuddly toy
    We don’t want a jigsaw or monopoly money
    We only want the real McCoy

    “Father Christmas, give us some money
    We’ll beat you up if you make us annoyed
    Father Christmas, give us some money
    Don’t mess around with those silly toys

    “But give my daddy a job ’cause he needs one
    He’s got lots of mouths to feed
    But if you’ve got one, I’ll have a machine gun
    So I can scare all the kids down the street

    “Father Christmas, give us some money
    We got no time for your silly toys
    We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
    Give all the toys to the little rich boys

    Have yourself a merry merry Christmas
    Have yourself a good time
    But remember the kids who got nothin’
    While you’re drinkin’ down your wine

  60. 60.

    Persia

    I can’t access YouTube, but someone had better have linked “Fairytale of New York” by now.

    I sort of like “All I Want for Christmas Is You” too. Oh, the shame.

  62. 62.

    phantomist

    Bigger question…how and why did this:

    “Jingle bells, Batman smells,
    Robin flew away.
    The Batmobile lost one wheel,
    All on Christmas Day.”

    –Get perverted into this:

    “Jingle bells, Batman smells,
    Robin laid an egg.
    The Batmobile lost a wheel,
    And the Joker got away.”

  63. 63.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @El Cid:

    I always think of that war movie where the Germans took the POWs out to the woods and shot them while that song was playing in the background.

    “So have yourself a merry little Christmas … BAM BAM BAM! … now.”

    In fact, that’s the only way I can sing it now.

  64. 64.

    RobNYNY1957

    @kay

    Not just because it’s whistful and sad (compare “White Christmas,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Drummer Boy,” etc.) Unlike even most other whistful carols, it’s about separation, loss, an unrecoverable past and an uncertain future, building up to a big climax and then ending in uncertainty and exhaustion. In fact, it’s not that far from “The Man That Got Away” in themes and musical style. There’s a reason the Judy Garland version is still close to definitive.

  65. 65.

    flukebucket

    John Lennon-Happy Christmas (War is Over)
    Gotta love Christmas. Wall to wall fantasyland. But if there ever was need for a holiday it is in the dead of winter. I can understand how it came to be.

  67. 67.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @Dave L:

    Yep, in the old days anyway.

    My dad (born in 1910) used to tell about one childhood Christmas where he looked at all the presents on the tree and finally found his … a toothbrush. Man, that was deprivation.

  70. 70.

    eemom

    ok, since this is probably the only thread in the history of bloggerdom where I can say this without sounding like a kook: it drives me crazy in Bob Seeger’s version of “The Little Drummer Boy” when he says:

    “Shall I play for you, on my drum?
    Then he nodded.”

    That’s CRAZY. Newborn babies don’t NOD. The correct line is “Mary nodded.” Damn it Bob!

    (well, maybe I do sound like a kook, but I feel better now)

  71. 71.

    Dave S.

    @phantomist: I always assumed it was millions of small children working semi-independently yet connected on some level. Earlier this week our 6-year-old was teaching the lyrics to our 4-year-old.

  75. 75.

    gogol's wife

    @Robin G.:
    I’m not crazy about the song, but the best version I ever heard was by Rosemary Clooney, over the closing credits of the “ER” episode she made a guest appearance on.

  76. 76.

    GeneJockey

    Parson Brown? Well, i guess that makes more sense than ‘Parched and Brown’ – we’re talking about a snowman, after all.

  77. 77.

    gogol's wife

    I hope everyone who hates Christmas carols gets to listen to John Waters’s Christmas album. It has some songs that are so bad they’re brilliant. It’s perfect for people who hate Christmas carols because it just makes the whole enterprise strange and new.

  79. 79.

    skippy

    in the store, there’s a teddy
    little straps like spaghetti
    it holds me so tight
    like handcuffs at night
    walkin’ ’round in women’s underwear

  81. 81.

    Sarcastro

    My favorite is here we com a wassailing. How such great words got corrupted is beyond me.

    I like the version that goes:

    “If the person you sing to
    cannot provide the wassail
    You are entitled to his debit card and pin number
    Love and joy come to you
    Unless you can’t provide the wassail
    Then severe financial penalties will come to you
    And severe financial penalties to you”

    And don’t try and foist off any canned wassail…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKpmg5DrpC0

  84. 84.

    Davis X. Machina

    Why does Frank Sinatra sing “hang a shining star upon the highest bough” when earlier versions (e.g. Ella) sang “until then we’ll have to muddle through some how”?

    The original was a wartime song, wasn’t it? By ’57 folks weren’t muddling through somehow.

    Me, I’m partial to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones “This Time of Year”

    The bells, the bows, the flashing lights,
    the mistletoes and the ‘Silent Nights’,
    It’s all for show, but that’s all right.
    That’s not why I love this time of year.

    This time of year,
    It gets me, and never lets me
    Act like I don’t care.
    This time of year,
    Is my favorite time of year,
    ‘Cause all of us are here together.

    The stores are packed
    With stuff for us to by.
    The shelves are stacked
    A mile high…

    But let’s get back
    To what I love about this time of year.

    Chorus

    There’s crap – it’s true —
    What can you do?
    It’s simply spending it with you
    That keeps me looking forward to
    Lookin’ forward to this time of year

    Chorus

  89. 89.

    Doctor Cleveland

    The original was a wartime song, wasn’t it? By ‘57 folks weren’t muddling through somehow.

    Yes. Lots of the standard Christmas songs come out of the war years, and they’re actually pretty melancholy.

    “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” is one sad song, especially that last lyric. Because it’s a soldier’s song.

  90. 90.

    dr. luba

    FWIW, many carols date back to the pre-christian era, particularly in those countries who were later adapters to Christianity. In them you will find interesting, but not at all religious, lyrics. You see this in English tradition in songs about wassailing, the king wren, and the Boar’s Head Carol. Others seem to have been adapted somewhat to Christianity.

    I find this interesting because caroling, like most other “Christmas” traditions, pre-dates Christianity in most places. Singing door-to-door was a happy pagan practice. The Xians knew a good thing when they saw it and, after initially trying to get rid of pagan holidays and practices, simply co-opted them.

    And now modern-day “Christians” are trying to force these traditions down everyone’s throats. I, for one, welcome mandatory pagan rituals…….time to throw a yule log on the fire and finish decorating my solstice tree.

  91. 91.

    dr. luba

    Oh, as to great Xmas albums, the Roche’s “We Three Kings” has always been a favorite, along with Judy Collins’ “Come Rejoice” (such a gorgeous voice!). A Partridge Family Xmas Card is a sentimental favorite (the first time I heard “Have Yourself a Merry Little Xmas”) and I love Leon Redbone’s “Christmas Island.” And Amy Mann’s “Just Another Drifter in the Snow” is marvelous…….

    If only I could find the Lennon Sisters’ first Xmas album–loved it as a kid, would love to hear them again.

  92. 92.

    still liberal

    And DougJ is off on a one man race to bring insipid to new heights. You were much better years ago as a troll just trying to make others look foolish.

  94. 94.

    jwb

    @RobNYNY1957: Yes, a lot of the 20th-century carols in Tin Pan Alley ballad style inflect to the minor mode (minor subdominant) in the final stanza: “Toyland,” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” “White Christmas” even “The Chipmunk Song” and “Jingle Bell Rock.” Not “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” however, which does it in its absolutely marvelous bridge—although “Merry” opens with the bass moving between the tonic and the submediant [which is itself minor] rather than the more usual tonic-dominant swing and it has a fairly strong pull toward the submediant throughout the outer stanzas of the chorus.

  95. 95.

    Randy P

    We’re kind of a musical family and Thanksgiving always includes a musical evening, which eventually devolves into singing Christmas songs. Mostly good stuff (somebody, or more than one somebody, almost always attempts “O Holy Night”). Nobody ever wants to do “Grandma got run over by a reindeer” no matter how many times I suggest it.

  96. 96.

    Randy P

    @Randy P:
    Wasn’t “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” originally intended to be a sad song in the movie (“Meet Me in St. Louis”)? I never saw the Judy Garland movie but it seems to me that’s what I’ve heard, that she sings it slowly and it is meant to sound sad and lonely.

  97. 97.

    Nicole

    I believe the real “Winter Wonderland” confusion is being ignored- is is “conspire” or “perspire?” The Partridge Family, they sang one thing. The singers of Frosty’s Winter Wonderland, they sang another.

    Speaking of both, I grew up with The Partridge Family Christmas Card, and, thanks to David Cassidy’s dirgelike performance of “Frosty the Snowman,” I believed it to be a depressing tragedy of a snowman who melted, leaving behind traumatized children, weeping in his puddle.

  98. 98.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    Why does Frank Sinatra sing “hang a shining star upon the highest bough” when earlier versions (e.g. Ella) sang “until then we’ll have to muddle through some how”?

    I assume you’ve already got your answer somewhere up in the comments, but I recall watching the composer of that song on television once, explaining the process of writing it. The original lyrics were very melancholy and it was decided (by a studio exec? I don’t recall) that they needed to be a bit happier. In fact, the words “have yourself a merry little Christmas” were originally meant somewhat sarcastically.

  99. 99.

    Origuy

    Jethro Tull’s Christmas Song

    Once in Royal David’s City stood a lonely cattle shed,
    where a mother held her baby.
    You’d do well to remember the things He later said.
    When you’re stuffing yourselves at the Christmas parties,
    you’ll just laugh when I tell you to take a running jump.
    You’re missing the point I’m sure does not need making
    that Christmas spirit is not what you drink.

    So how can you laugh when your own mother’s hungry,
    and how can you smile when the reasons for smiling are wrong?
    And if I just messed up your thoughtless pleasures,
    remember, if you wish, this is just a Christmas song.

    (Hey! Santa! Pass us that bottle, will you?)

  100. 100.

    Tom Hilton

    So we’re on the subject of Christmas albums now? Okay: best ever is the ZE Christmas Album. Original source of that Waitresses song, plus classics like James White & the Blacks doing Christmas with Satan (“There won’t be no wise men/and certainly no virgins/this Christmas can’t be made white/with any known detergent”), a rousing Material/Nona Hendryx track, and Davitt Sigerson’s sweetly goofy It’s a Big Country.

  102. 102.

    jayjaybear

    Jingle bells, jingle bells,
    Santa Claus is dead.
    Rudolph took a .44 and
    shot him in the head.

    Barbie doll, Barbie doll,
    tried to save his life.
    GI Joe, GI Joe,
    stuck her with a knife.

    -traditional (in certain circles)

  106. 106.

    Dr. Loveless

    @gogol’s wife:

    I hope everyone who hates Christmas carols gets to listen to John Waters’s Christmas album. It has some songs that are so bad they’re brilliant. It’s perfect for people who hate Christmas carols because it just makes the whole enterprise strange and new.

    Santa Claus is a black man.

  107. 107.

    Pat

    Parson Brown’s not flirting, he’s stumbled on them fucking in the woods.

    I love “I Believe in Father Christmas.” And I always laugh when I hear it in malls. Well, and cry.

  109. 109.

    dr. luba

    @Tattoosydney: The Carol of the Bells is a traditional Ukrainian shchedrivka (New Year’s song) which was arranged for orchestra by the composer Leontovych. The original, called simply “Shchedryk,” is sung a cappella with several different voices, and is a truly beautiful song.

    The new year was originally celebrated in April, so the words of the song all have to do with the coming of spring. The English words are not a translation, but original lyrics, and have lost some of the complexity of the original lyrics.

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