Judy Garland’s place in the annals of popular music would have been all but assured if she had only introduced Harold Arlen and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow” to the world.  After all, the Academy Award-winning song from The Wizard of Oz (1939) was ranked the No. 1 Song of the Century by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) and topped a list of the 100 Greatest Movie Songs compiled by the American Film Institute.  Garland introduced another venerable standard when she was first to sing Arlen and Ira Gershwin’s torch song to end all torch songs, “The Man That Got Away,” in 1954’s film A Star is Born.  But those two classic songs are just the tip of the iceberg for the actress, singer and artist like no other.  The U.K. label JSP Records has recognized the full extent of Garland’s immense contributions to the art of popular song, and has set out to compile a collection of the songs she introduced between 1929 and 1962.  The four-disc set, entitled Creations 1929-1962: Songs She Introduced, boasts 94 tracks and over five hours of pow!

The set comes with quite a pedigree.  JSP has already released a number of Garland collections including 2010’s landmark Lost Tracks, 2011’s singles collection Smilin’ Through and 2012’s reissue of The Historic Concert Remastered.  (Carnegie Hall, that is!)   Creations has been compiled and annotated by Lawrence Schulman, responsible for not only those three JSP sets but other Garland releases such as Child of Hollywood (RPCD, 1993), Judy Garland at the Paris Olympia (Europe 1, 1994), and Classiques et inédits (Frémeaux & Associés, 2008).  Schulman will be joined in the liner notes by a number of other Garland scholars including Christopher Finch (author of Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland, The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms, and Beyond), Will Friedwald (author of A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer’s Art), and John Meyer (author of Heartbreaker, Operation Ruby Slipper).  Peter Rynston of Tall Order Mastering, who has remastered the prior JSP sets as well as a number of recent rock and pop releases for Edsel Records, is handling the set’s audio restoration under the supervision of JSP’s John Stedman.   Andrew Aitken has designed the package.

There's more after the jump!

The four discs are divided by period: 1929-1940, 1941-1943, 1943-1948 and 1948-1962.  The earliest track, “Blue Butterfly,” was Garland’s first solo spot onscreen, from 1929’s Vitaphone short A Holiday in Storyland.  The final four tracks, from 1962, are all from Chuck Jones’ UPA animated feature Gay Purr-ee, in which Garland starred as the voice of Turkish Angora cat Mewsette.   Along the way, Creations offers rare and lesser-known songs alongside bona fide classics like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “The Trolley Song” and “The Boy Next Door” (all from 1944’s Meet Me in St. Louis), “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” (from 1946’s The Harvey Girls) and “Be a Clown” (from 1948’s The Pirate).  On the latter, Garland is joined by Gene Kelly; other duet partners on Creations include Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Mickey Rooney, Allan Jones, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Peter Lawford and her Wizard of Oz compatriots Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Buddy Ebsen, and Bert Lahr.  Ebsen, of course, was the original Tin Man until he experienced an adverse reaction to the character’s makeup and was replaced by Jack Haley.  Songwriters represented include Harold Arlen, “Yip” Harburg, Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Berlin, Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane, Harry Warren, Johnny Mercer, and many, many others.

A reminder of Garland's rich legacy both on screen and on record, Creations is scheduled for release by JSP on April 1 in the U.K.!  You can pre-order below at Amazon U.K., and we'll provide a U.S. link as soon as one is active!

Judy Garland, Creations 1929-1962: Songs She Introduced (JSP Records, 2013)

CD A: IT’S LOVE I’M AFTER 1929-1940

1. Blue Butterfly
2. Hang On To A Rainbow
3. Stompin’ At The Savoy
4. Waltz With A Swing/Americana
5. The Balboa
6. The Texas Tornado
7. It’s Love I’m After
8. Everybody Sing (with Sophie Tucker)
9. Your Broadway And My Broadway
10. Yours And Mine
11. Swing Mr. Mendelssohn
12. Got A Pair Of New Shoes
13. Down On Melody Farm (with Allan Jones, Reginald Gardiner, and Lynne Carver)
14. Ever Since The World Began/Shall I Sing A Melody?
15. Why? Because! (with Fanny Brice)
16. It Never Rains But What It Pours
17. In Between
18. Meet The Beat Of My Heart
19. Ten Pins In The Sky
20. On The Bumpy Road To Love
21. The Jitterbug (with Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Buddy Ebsen, and Bert Lahr)
22. Over The Rainbow
23. Good Morning (with Mickey Rooney)
24. Sweet Sixteen
25. Oceans Apart
26. Figaro

CD B: WHEN I LOOK AT YOU 1941-1943

1. (Can This Be) The End Of The Rainbow
2. Nobody
3. Drummer Boy
4. Do The La Conga (with Mickey Rooney)
5. It’s A Great Day For The Irish
6. A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow
7. Laugh? I Thought I’d Split My Side (with Charles Winninger)
8. Our Love Affair
9. We Must Have Music (with Tony Martin)
10. Minnie From Trinidad
11. How About You? (with Mickey Rooney)
12. Hoe Down (with Mickey Rooney)
13. Chin Up! Cheerio! Carry On!
14. Babes On Broadway
15. Three Cheers For The Yanks
16. Tom, Tom, The Piper’s Son
17. When I Look At You
18. Paging Mr. Greenback
19. The Joint Is Really Jumpin’ Down At Carnegie Hall (with Jose Iturbi at the piano)
20. Boys and Girls Like You and Me
21. The Trolley Song
22. The Boy Next Door

CD C: BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME 1943-1948

1. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
2. A Great Lady Has An Interview (aka The Interview; Madame Crematante)
3. You’ve Got Me Where You Want Me (with Bing Crosby)
4. On The Atchison, Topeka And The Santa Fe
5. In The Valley (Where The Evening Sun Goes Down)
6. My Intuition (with John Hodiak)
7. March Of The Doagies
8. Hayride (with Ray Bolger)
9. Connecticut (with Bing Crosby)
10. It’s A Great Big World (with Virginia O’Brien and Marion Doenges)
11. Don’t Tell Me That Story
12. There Is No Breeze (To Cool The Flame Of Love)
13. Love Of My Life
14. You Can Do No Wrong
15. Voodoo
16. Be A Clown (with Gene Kelly)
17. Mr. Monotony
18. A Couple Of Swells (with Fred Astaire)
19. Mack The Black
20. It Only Happens When I Dance With You (with Roger Edens at the piano)
21. A Fella With An Umbrella (with Peter Lawford)
22. Better Luck Next Time

CD D: IT’S A NEW WORLD 1948-1962

1. Merry Christmas
2. Let’s Go West Again
3. If You Feel Like Singing, Sing
4. (Howdy, Neighbor) Happy Harvest
5. Friendly Star
6. All For You (with Gene Kelly)
7. You, Wonderful You (with Gene Kelly)
8. Send My Baby Back To Me
9. Heartbroken
10. Without A Memory
11. Here’s What I’m Here For
12. Gotta Have Me Go With You (with Don McKabe and Jack Harmon)
13. The Man That Got Away
14. It’s A New World
15. Someone At Last
16. Lose That Long Face
17. Maybe I’ll Come Back
18. It’s Lovely To Be Back In London
19. The Faraway Part Of Town
20. Sweet Danger
21. Little Drops Of Rain
22. Take My Hand, Paree
23. Paris Is A Lonely Town
24. Roses Red, Violets Blue