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
Extraordinary Merry Christmas is anything but. VanDerWerff agreed that there was "no good reason for Rachel to sing it", and Flandez called it a "forgettable version". Futterman's conclusion was that "it feels a little phoned in and doesn't emotionally connect". The original song for which the episode is named, "Extraordinary Merry Christmas", received mostly decent marks from reviewers: Slezak gave it a "B" and called it "fun but slight", and Sullivan said it was "okay, which is high praise for a "Glee" original". Bell noted that "Blaine and Rachel sound great together", and Martin and Stanhope also praised their "spirited performances", though they