Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

It is widely known that from 1943 to 1953 Axel Stordahl was Sinatra's conductor and arranger. However, what hasn't been widely understood is the extent to which he had assistance in the creation of arrangements. The concept of ghost writing' was commonplace at the time. The radio networks and television and movie studios had composers and arrangers on staff whose job it was to produce everything from film scores to incidental background music for announcer-read commercials. These on-staff arrangers were also available to help fill out a program of music needed for an upcoming performance. It's no secret that as Sinatra became a major star in the 1940s he was performing on a near-daily basis. Due to the number of live dates Sinatra was involved in (concerts, radio, or television) it would have been very difficult for Stordahl to arrange new material to meet the demand. Hence, several ghost writers' were employed by the Sinatra organization to help quickly produce arrangements of popular songs of the day. Some of the people who contributed arrangements were Billy May, Bill Bunt, Neal Hefti, Earle Hagen, John Hicks, Lowell Martin, and George Siravo. In fact, there are at least two instances of arrangements that were begun by one arranger and finished by another. The two such arrangements are Don't Fence Me In (Lowell Martin and Billy May) and The Brooklyn Bridge (Bill Bunt and Axel Stordahl). Until now it was widely believed that Stordahl had written most if not all of these arrangements. Now, due to the availability of materials from Sinatra's library, we are able to determine the actual arrangers of this historic music. This particular arrangement was written by Earle Hagen for Sinatra's Hollywood recording session on July 3, 1947. The recording was later released by Columbia as part of the album Christmas Songs by Sinatra. Unlike most of the other Christmas material that was written for and performed on the radio by Sinatra during this time period, this was written specifically to be recorded in the studio. This lush arrangement serves as lovely accompaniment to this Christmas favorite. This publication has been based on the original Earle Hagen pencil score as well as the set of parts used during the Columbia recording session.