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Listen: Sam Smith sings ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’

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What’d you expect? “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”?

Tasked with keeping the beast fed by recording a holiday tune, Sam Smith clung to his established sad-guy vibe and picked what might be the gloomiest yuletide number of all in “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” known to bummed-out romantics everywhere as the one that sounds most like a breakup song.

Just as typical, though, is the fact that the British soul singer’s stripped-down performance of the Christmas classic (which appeared Friday on YouTube) is totally gorgeous -- like, almost-as-pretty-as-Justin Bieber’s-”Silent Night” gorgeous.

For who knows what reason, Smith declined to sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” at KIIS-FM’s Jingle Ball concert last week at Staples Center. (I’d for sure have taken it over Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me,” which Grande did.)

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But that hardly kept the Jingle Ball crowd -- not unlike the Recording Academy, which just showered Smith with Grammy nominations -- from receiving Smith like some kind of melisma-spewing deity.

Maybe we should just give him all the awards now?

Twitter: @mikaelwood

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