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

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.)

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