Reviving Judy Garland's "Merry Christmas"

In her 1949 MGM film, In the Good Old Summertime, Judy Garland sings a lovely but oft-overlooked Christmas song appropriately titled, “Merry Christmas.” Fred Spielman, who had been a prominent cabaret pianist in pre-Anschluss Vienna, wrote the music and Yale-drama alumna Janice Torré wrote the lyric — a partnership that later produced the songs for The Stingiest Man in Town, a musical version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

It was released on an MGM Records album but, to my knowledge, Judy never sang it again after she recorded it for the movie on November 16th, 1948. Perhaps the song’s passing similarity to her earlier hit, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” prevented it from becoming more widely known. Nevertheless, the arrangement had long been on my wishlist for restoration, so when Joelle Graves, the Executive Director of the Rogue Valley Symphony in Ashland, Oregon, asked me to create a holiday pops concert for them entitled A Judy Garland Christmas for December 2025, I knew the time was at hand.

Three Judy Garland Songs You May Not Have Heard

It kind of feels like every day is Judy Garland’s centennial in our house, since, on any given day, chances are I’m either knee-deep in restoring one of her original orchestral arrangements or practicing to sing a whole bunch of them with an orchestra. But a little extra celebration is definitely in order this year, so after you’ve baked a cake, finished watching all her movies, and listened to the Carnegie Hall album, here are three recordings that are far enough off-the-beaten-path that even some long-time Garland fans may not have come across them. All of them are personal favorites, and I hope you enjoy them, too!