The "soundtrack album" of songs taken directly from the original studio pre-recordings did not come into existence until MGM formed "M-G-M Records" and released selections from Till The Clouds Roll By on 78 rpm in 1946. Prior to this, the only soundtrack performances available were a couple of 78s from RCA Records of selections from Walt Disney's Snow White And the Seven Dwarfs (1937), and a few commemorative 78s in 1933 with parts of Max Steiner's ground-breaking score for King Kong (RKO - 1933). But neither of these were "cast" or "soundtrack" albums.

When M-G-M Records premiered their Till The Clouds Roll By soundtrack, it was far from a complete soundtrack album as we know it today. The standard albums of the time were 78rpm - usually 4 discs containing 8 songs. The time constraints were such that most of the performances were abridged versions of the numbers as seen and heard in the films. And many performances from the films were left out of the soundtrack albums entirely. It wasn't until the mid-1950s that the 10" and 12" 33 1/3 "long playing" records appeared. Still, M-G-M Records and other record companies did not release complete soundtracks (with overtures and background score) until after 1959 when Disney released their "complete" soundtrack (including overture and some background scoring) of Sleeping Beauty. This became the standard format for soundtracks through the advent of the compact disc era. A year prior to this, in 1958, M-G-M Records did release their soundtrack to Gigi with the overture, but it did not contain any of the bakground score. Still, this was their most complete soundtrack to date.

In spite of this new format, M-G-M Records did not see the need to take the time and expense to go back and re-do their old soundtrack albums. They simply reissued them in special two-record editions. Judy's complete soundtracks would not appear until the late 1970's on bootleg albums of songs taken directly from soundtracks of the films, not the actual pre-recordings.

In the late 1980's and early 1990's CBS Special Products released several MGM soundtracks "complete" on CD for the first time. These were, once again, taken directly from the soundtracks of the films. Some included a few outtakes added from the old bootleg records of the 70's. The sound quality varied from good to mediocre to bad! It wasn't until the mid-1990's when Rhino Records, in arrangement with Turner Classic Movies Music and Turner Entertainment, began releasing the MGM Musicals on CD that we finally got to hear the complete unedited pre-recordings - restored and remastered - many in true stereo!

Most of Judy's pre-recordings, including alternate takes, had previously appeared on the alternate audio channels of the laser disc sets "Judy Garland The Golden Years at MGM", "The Ultimate Oz", "That's Entertainment - The Ultimate Musical Treasury", "That's Entertainment! III - Special Edition" and the double feature "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry/Listen Darling". These laser discs are still the only place to find many of these rare pre-recordings.

A few notes about these pages:

Discrepancies in titles and even track listings is inherent to the many bootleg soundtracks released over the years. We have made note of these inconsistencies on the pages for those soundtracks.

Films such as That's Entertainment! that feature Garland vocals are listed in the "Compilations" section.

We're always on the lookout for albums that are not represented here. If you have an album or CD that is not listed, please feel free to email us a scan of the cover with information about the contents. Thanks!

All images on this page from the collections of Scott Brogan and Eric Hemphill.