| Meet Me In St. Louis | ||||
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 Main album cover | ||||
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | November 2, 1944 | |||
| Recorded | April 20–21, 1944 | |||
| Studio | Decca Studios, Los Angeles, CA | |||
| Genre | Traditional pop | |||
| Label | Decca | |||
| Judy Garland chronology | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
 Alternate cover | ||||
Meet Me In St. Louis is the fifth studio album of phonograph records by Judy Garland with Georgie Stoll's Orchestra, released in 1944 by Decca Records, featuring songs presented in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer eponymous motion picture. [1]
Released less than 10 days before Columbia and Victor Records formally ended the 1942-44 recording ban, the album peaked at number two on the April 7, 1945 Billboard Best-Selling Popular Record Albums chart. [2] In their Record Possibilities column, the magazine praised "The Trolley Song":
... There's plenty of bounce and the platter is actually given movie treatment, with everything on wax but the kitchen sink... You have to play this three times to take in everything... Even if you have another version get this, too. [3]
"The Trolley Song" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards, but lost to "Swinging on a Star" by Bing Crosby from Paramount's Going My Way . Additionally, the album was the debut of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", now a perennial holiday standard.
With all selections featuring Georgie Stoll's Orchestra and Chorus, these newly issued songs were featured on a 3-disc, 78 rpm album set, Decca A-380.
Disc 1: (23360)
Disc 2: (23361)
Disc 3: (23662)
Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 American Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith family in St. Louis leading up to the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in the spring of 1904. The film stars Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Marjorie Main, June Lockhart and Joan Carroll. The film was adapted by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe from a series of short stories by Sally Benson originally published in The New Yorker magazine called "The Kensington Stories" and later in novel form as Meet Me in St. Louis. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, who met Garland on the set and later married her. Tony Award-winning designer Lemuel Ayers served as the film's art director.
Gordon Hill Jenkins was an American arranger, composer, and pianist who was influential in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s. Jenkins worked with The Andrews Sisters, Johnny Cash, The Weavers, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Harry Nilsson, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald.
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics. In 2007, ASCAP ranked it the third most performed Christmas song during the preceding five years that had been written by ASCAP members. In 2004 it finished at No. 76 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs rankings of the top tunes in North American cinema.
Hugh Martin was an American musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He was best known for his score for the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis, in which Judy Garland sang three Martin songs, "The Boy Next Door", "The Trolley Song", and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". The last of these has become a Christmas season standard in the United States and around the English-speaking world. Martin became a close friend of Garland and was her accompanist at many of her concert performances in the 1950s, including her appearances at the Palace Theater.
"On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" is a popular song written by Harry Warren with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The song was published in 1944, spanned the hit chart in mid-1945, and won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Original Song, the first win for Mercer.
"The Christmas Song" is a classic Christmas song written in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé.
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The song was written by Berlin for the 1942 musical film Holiday Inn. The composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards. Bing Crosby's record topped the Billboard chart for 11 weeks in 1942 and returned to the number one position again in December 1943 and 1944. His version would return to the top 40 a dozen times in subsequent years.
"My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time" is a 1945 popular song.
"Pennies from Heaven" is a 1936 American popular song with music by Arthur Johnston and lyrics by Johnny Burke. It was introduced by Bing Crosby with Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra in the 1936 film of the same name.
The songs from the 1939 musical fantasy film The Wizard of Oz have taken their place among the most famous and instantly recognizable American songs of all time, and the film's principal song, "Over the Rainbow", is perhaps the most famous song ever written for a film. Music and lyrics were by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, who won an Academy Award for Best Song for "Over the Rainbow."
"The Trolley Song" is a song written by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin and made famous by Judy Garland in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis.
Merry Christmas is a Christmas-themed compilation album by Bing Crosby that was released in 1945 on Decca Records. It has remained in print through the vinyl, CD, and downloadable file eras, currently as the disc and digital album White Christmas on MCA Records, a part of the Universal Music Group, and currently on vinyl as Merry Christmas on Geffen Records. It includes Crosby's signature song "White Christmas", the best-selling single of all time with estimated sales of over 50 million copies worldwide. The album was certified 4× Platinum by RIAA for selling over 4 million copies in United States. The original 1945 release and subsequent re-releases and re-packages spent a total of 39 weeks at no. 1 on the Billboard pop albums chart.
"The Boy Next Door" is a 1944 popular song by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. It was introduced in the musical film Meet Me in St. Louis, where it was performed by Judy Garland to an arrangement of Conrad Salinger conducted by Georgie Stoll. It has been praised as a perfect example of how to advance story and reveal a character’s emotions efficiently on screen.
Judy Garland signed her first recording contract at age 13 with Decca Records in late 1935. Garland began recording albums for Capitol Records in the 1950s. Her greatest success, Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961), was listed for 73 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, was certified Gold, and took home five Grammy Awards.
"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" is a popular Vaudeville song. The music is credited to Harry Carroll, but the melody is adapted from Fantaisie-Impromptu by Frédéric Chopin. The lyrics were written by Joseph McCarthy, and the song was published in 1917. It was introduced in the Broadway show Oh, Look! which opened in March 1918. The song was sung in the show by the Dolly Sisters. Judy Garland sang it in the 1941 film Ziegfeld Girl. It was subsequently sung by Jack Oakie in the 1944 film The Merry Monahans and was again featured in the 1945 film The Dolly Sisters (1945), where it was sung by John Payne. It was also included for part of the run of the 1973 revival of Irene. Additionally, the pre-chorus would not have been included until later covers in the 1940s, where the song would gain its iconic libretti.
Georgie Stoll was a musical director, conductor, Academy Award-winning composer, and jazz violinist, associated with the Golden Age of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals and performers from the 1940s to 1960s. He was also later credited as George E. Stoll.
Merry Christmas is the second Christmas album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released by Columbia Records in 1965, and his seventeenth studio album overall. This seasonal LP is focused exclusively on 20th century compositions, unlike 1963's The Andy Williams Christmas Album, which, of its 12 tracks, had six with origins predating the turn of the century.
Garland at the Grove is the debut live album by Judy Garland, released in mono on February 2, 1959 and in stereo on February 16, 1959 by Capitol Records, accompanied by Freddy Martin and his orchestra. The album was recorded at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
Christmas Greetings is a studio album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby released in 1949 featuring popular Christmas songs.
Girl Crazy is the fourth studio album by Judy Garland featuring Mickey Rooney, released in 1944 by Decca Records. The album features songs presented in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer eponymous motion picture. and based on the 1930 stage musical of the same name by George Gershwin. Garland's recording sessions for the album took place during November 1943.
