Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas etc., mainly because this bizarre situation was caused by my naive and atrocious lack of business acumen." Judy Garland's 1944 version of the song reached No. 27 on the "Billboard" charts. The lyrics Garland sang in "Meet Me in St. Louis" have been recorded with only slight variations by a number of artists, including Sinatra (in 1950 and 1963 single recordings), Bing Crosby (in "I Wish You a Merry Christmas"), Doris Day (in "The Doris Day Christmas Album"), Ella Fitzgerald (in "Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas"), The Pretenders (in the first "A Very Special Christmas" compilation), James Taylor (in
Give Me Your Love for Christmas 1961, and "Christmas Day", which came from the then-current Broadway musical "Promises, Promises". New versions of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "The Little Drummer Boy", which he also recorded in 1963 for his previous Christmas LP, "Sounds of Christmas", made the final track list here as well. The album debuted on "Billboard" magazine's Christmas Albums sales chart in the issue dated December 6, 1969, and spent one of its four weeks there at number one. It also appeared on the magazine’s seasonal LP chart each year from 1970 to 1973 as well as in 1987 and 1988. On