"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" has got to be one of the most classic Christmas songs of all time. It was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane for the 1944 movie "Meet Me in St. Louis", starring Judy Garland. According to an interview with the writers in 1989, when Judy first read the words she refused to sing it because the words were too depressing. Martin and Blane revised it, and that version was used in the movie. This piano solo is written for advanced intermediate level, and begins with a beautiful, flowing style, full of rich chording, and changes into a "piano bar" style, with a single line melody in the R.H. and bass and chords in the L.H. The melody is written using many triplets and a swing rhythm that is similar to the way it is sung by many famous artists. There is lots of helpful fingering, making many passages flow with ease. Pedal this song about every 2 beats to maintain a clean sound. Arranged by Amy J. Snyder. Visit AmyJoMusic at www.facebook.com/amyjsnyder7and#65279;. Copyright (c) 1943 (Renewed) METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER INC. (c) 1944 (Renewed) EMI FEIST CATALOG INC. All Rights Controlled and Administered by EMI FEIST CATALOG INC. (Publishing) and ALFRED MUSIC (Print) All Rights Reserved.

Souvenir de Porto Rico, Op. 31, is a musical composition for piano by American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk written from 1857 during a tour in Puerto Rico. Dedicated to the Dutch piano virtuoso and salon music composer Ernest Henry Lubeck, and published in Mainz circa 1860 with the subtitle of Marche des Gibaros, it is based on the Christmas folk song 'Si me dan pasteles, denmelos calientes', performed by local peasants known as J�baros.

The piece makes use of Latin-American and Afro-American melodies and rhythms almost fifty years before early ragtime and jazz would popularize its use.Souvenir de Porto Rico was written in the last trimester of 1857, when of Gottschalk's stay at the sugar plantation of English-born Mr. Cornelius Cartwright, in Plazuela. At the time, Gottschalk was on vacation with singer Adelina Patti and her father. He would decide not to leave Puerto Rico, but instead remain there for weeks. During this period he composed a number of additional pieces after the local musical styles.Gottschalk would say about the setting where he composed the piece: "[I was] perched upon the edge of a crater, [and] my cabin overlooked the whole country. Every evening I moved my piano out upon the terrace, and played for myself alone, everything that the scene opened up before me inspired. It was there that I composed 'Marche des Gibaros.'.