ABOUT THE DISC & RECORDINGS:

This is the only MGM musical that Judy Garland did not complete for which she recorded the entire score. She actually filmed a few scenes including the numbers "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" and "I'm An Indian Too" before suffering a breakdown that forced her out of the picture. This sequence of events has become legendary in the story of Judy Garland and her struggles with prescription medicine AND the studio. She had previously been forced to bow out of The Barkley's Of Broadway in 1948 (in which it was planned that she would reprise her 1937 hit "You Made me Love You"), she would then bow out of Royal Wedding in 1950 - but she left those two films prior to recording any of the score or filming any scenes.

For years, this soundtrack was the "Holy Grail" of Garland's MGM recordings. "You Can't Get A Man With A Gun" had been on various M-G-M Records compilations since the early 1960's. With that little nugget, M-G-M Records gave fans cause to believe that all of Judy's pre-recordings for Annie Get Your Gun actually did exist and would eventaully be released.

This Sandy Hook release is the the best presentation of all of the Annie pre-recordings on album. The sound quality is decent and listenable.

The back of the album (shown at right) is quite extensive for a "low budget" record company. It features Judy's famous explanation about what happened, as well as newspaper clips detailing the sequence of events of Judy's troubles with the film, as well as costume test photos.

It wouldn't be until the 1990's when Rhino Records/Turner Classic Movies Music released "Judy Garland - Collector's Gems From The M-G-M Films" that the pre-recordings would be restored and presented properly. Since that time, the complete soundtrack (including the completed version with Judy's replacement Betty Hutton) has been released by Rhino as well (see below).

This Sandy Hook version was also released on cassette, #CSH-2053.

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