This is the
CD version of Decca's Girl Crazy, Meet Me In St. Louis and The
Harvey Girls albums originally released on
78. These recordings, excepting Girl Crazy, had previously been
issued in LP format in the 1960's and 70's. This CD issue added
Girl Crazy and the previously cut version of "March
Of The Doagies" to The
Harvey Girls section to make the CD "complete".
Judy recorded a couple of different versions of "On The Atchison, Topeka
And The Santa Fe" for this Decca cast album. On May 15, 1945, Judy and the "Kay
Thompson Chorus" recorded a two-part version of the song. Part 1 was the "choral
intro"
and Part 2 was Judy's intro through the end of the song.
Judy sang "What A Lovely Trip" as in the film.
It ended as it does in the film with Judy and the chorus
repeating the song title 3 times. This Part 2 was considered
unusable, so Judy came back re-recorded this section on
September 10, 1945. This re-recorded version beging with
Judy singing
"What A Lovely Day" and ends without the repeated
tag on the song's title line. When the cast album was released,
only Judy's re-recorded Part 2 from 09-10-1945 was included.
Part-one of the song remained unreleased until it was discovered
and included in the 1994 CD boxed set "Judy
Garland - The Complete Decca Masters (plus)."
However, and just to make things confusing, when Decca re-released Judy's songs
on LP in the 50s, they used the original, rejected version of Part 2 (from 05-15-1945).
The originally released (on 78) September 10, 1945 version
remained unreleased on American LP until 1984 when Decca included it on the LP "From
The Decca Vaults" (MCA-907).
The version heard on this 1960 LP and its reissues is the "rejected" 05-15-1945
version. This CD version restores (so to speak) the original 09-10-45 version
coupled with the "Kay Thomson Chorus" intro as first released on the
1994 boxed set.
