A MERRY LITTLE DITTY

Hugh Martin, musical theatre and film composer died yesterday at the grand age of 96.

Of his many showbiz credits, he will be enduringly remembered for the trio of numbers he wrote for Judy Garland in Vincente Minnelli's 1944 MGM romantic musical, Meet Me in St Louis: 'The Boy Next Door'; the Oscar-nominated 'The Trolley Song' (both with Ralph Blane); and what was to become a seasonal evergreen, 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' – now more familiar to us from upbeat cover-versions than from the decidedly pensive original.

To have written just one of these songs would have been enough to guarantee Hugh Martin of lasting fame, to have composed all three surely guarantees his immortality!

You can read more about the writing (and re-writing) of 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' here.

HUGH MARTIN
11 August 1914–11 March 2011