The songs, music, images and later video from Meet Me In St. Louis have always been among the most popular for Judy Garland fans, movie musical fans, and fans of great cinema. Judy began performing the songs on radio almost immediately.

In 1944 Decca Records produced a "Cast Album" of songs from the film, as performed by most of the participants (mainly Judy) with orchestrations almost matching those in the film. These were studio recordings, not the recordings as heard in the film. "Movie Soundtrack" albums with the actual pre-recordings from films were still a few years away. The album was a huge hit for Decca. These recordings would be re-released in various incarnations through to the present day. There has been a multitude of compilations on record, 8-track, cassette and CD that include songs from Meet Me In St. Louis, too many to list here.

Not to be outdone, MGM Records would begin releasing compilation albums which included "The Boy Next Door" and/or "The Trolley Song". MGM evidently didn't see the need to use the original pre-recordings, but instead opted to use the songs as recorded directly from the soundtrack of the film (with background sound effects and all). It wouldn't be until the film's 1994 50th Anniversary that the original and complete pre-recordings would be released.

In 1955 Judy recorded her first album for Capitol Records titled "Miss Show Business". This album was basically a studio version of her current concert performances. It included her now famous "Medley" that contained "The Boy Next Door" and "The Trolley Song" as well as her previous movie hits "You Made Me Love You" and "For Me And My Gal". In the late 50's, Judy would drop "The Boy Next Door" from the medley, retaining only the remaining 3 songs. This medley would show up on several compilations of Judy's Capitol performances.

Perhaps the most famous of Judy's performances of songs from the film is the "Medley" as performed in her now legendary Carnegie Hall performance from 1961. A mega hit and never out of release, this performance of "The Trolley Song" is sometimes people's first introduction to the marvelous songs from the film.

When the "home video revolution" began in the early 1980's, Meet Me In St. Louis was of course one of the first MGM films to be released in the various video and laser disc formats. The film would later be restored in the late 1980's and re-released. Then it would be restored again (quite beautifully), this time with a restored complete stereo soundtrack, for the 1994 50th anniversary.

Finally, in 2004, the film would see its premiere release on DVD benefitting from the Warner Home Video's revolutionary "Ultra-Resolution" process that restores Technicolor films to their original clarity and vibrance. The process is so detailed that you can actually tell what type of material the costumes are made from. It's that detailed.

As a testament to the film's lasting charm, not to mention to the people who worked on the film both in front of and behind the camera, all of the above proves that Meet Me In St. Louis is a timeless classic that will live on through the years no matter what format it's presented in.

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