"Next Year All Our Troubles Will Be Out of Sight": A Song for 2020

Although written for Judy Garland to sing in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” seems like it could have been written today. Back then, America was knee-deep in World War II, and now we’re nine months into another world-wide crisis, in many cases without even the comfort of friends and family to help us get through it. Here’s hoping that “someday soon we all will be together” and that 2021 will be much brighter than 2020. And in the meantime, Merry Christmas.

(Song by Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane; Original orchestral arrangement by Conrad Salinger; Piano arrangement by Joan Ellison based on the original orchestration.)

Joan EllisonDecember 19, 2020Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Judy Garland, Meet Me in St. Louis, Joan Ellison, Conrad Salinger, Hugh Martin, Classic Movie Musicals, Classic Hollywood, World War II, Pandemic Songs, Corona Concert, Living Room Concert, RCA-44 microphone, vintage fashion, retro music, retro singerComment

“Yes”: My Journey into the Wonderful World of Orchestration and Meeting Some Wizards

During the past five months I’ve been on a very steep learning curve — actually, more like something involving tornadoes and the yellow brick road — but on January 21st I’m going to get to share with 2000 people some of the results of the arduous journey: I’m going to get to sing two of Judy Garland’s original arrangements onstage with a symphony orchestra.

Of course, I’ve been singing Judy’s tunes with orchestras for a few years now, in wonderful arrangements based on the originals by two terrific arrangers (see an earlier post, "Getting Happy"). But for someone like me who loves time travel and Judy, suddenly having access to the actual note-for-note arrangements that we’ve all heard on her albums was an incredible stroke of good fortune that I’d never even allowed myself to hope for.

Here’s how it happened:

Joan EllisonJanuary 1, 2017Judy Garland, Joan Ellison, Nelson Riddle, Come Rain or Come Shine, Orchestration, Hollywood, Classic Movie Musicals, Conrad Salinger, MGM, Michael Feinstein, Larry Blank, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Carl Topilow, NEOS Dance Theatre, Capitol Records, Golden Age of Film, Arthur FreedComment