"
The Trolley Song" is a song written by
Hugh MartinHugh Martin is an American musical theatre and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He is best known for his score for the classic 1944 MGM musical Meet Me In St. Louis, in which Judy Garland sang three Martin songs, "The Boy Next Door", The Trolley Song, and Have Yourself a Merry...
and
Ralph BlaneRalph Blane was an American composer, lyricist, and performer.-Biography:Born Ralph Uriah Hunsecker in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Blane was the son of grocery store owners. He attended Tulsa Central High School...
and made famous by
Judy GarlandJudy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy...
in the 1944 film
Meet Me in St. LouisMeet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 romantic musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of four sisters living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904....
. The song was inspired by a picture of a trolleycar in a children's picture book.
Blane and Martin were nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original SongThe Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
at the 1945 Academy Awards, for "The Trolley Song" but lost to "
Swinging on a Star-Origins:Swinging on a Star was recorded in Los Angeles February 7, 1944 by singer Bing Crosby and released by Decca Records. Legendary crooner Andy Williams and his brothers in The William Brothers Quartet backed up Bing on his 1944 version . His song writer, Jimmy Van Heusen, was at Crosby’s...
" from
Going My WayGoing My Way, a 1944 film directed by Leo McCarey. It is a light-hearted musical comedy/drama about a new young priest taking over a parish from an established old veteran . Crosby sings five songs in the film. It was followed the next year by a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's. This picture was...
. "The Trolley Song" was ranked #26 by the
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
in 2004 on the
100 Years... 100 Songs|Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Songs is a list of the top 100 songs in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute June 22, 2004 in a CBS special hosted by John Travolta, who appeared in two films honored by the list, Saturday Night Fever and...
list. The song as conducted by
Georgie StollGeorgie Stoll was a musical director, conductor, composer and jazz violinist, associated with the Golden Age of MGM musicals and performers from the 1940s to 60s. Born George Martin Stoll, he was also later credited as George E...
for
Meet Me in St.
"
The Trolley Song" is a song written by
Hugh MartinHugh Martin is an American musical theatre and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He is best known for his score for the classic 1944 MGM musical Meet Me In St. Louis, in which Judy Garland sang three Martin songs, "The Boy Next Door", The Trolley Song, and Have Yourself a Merry...
and
Ralph BlaneRalph Blane was an American composer, lyricist, and performer.-Biography:Born Ralph Uriah Hunsecker in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Blane was the son of grocery store owners. He attended Tulsa Central High School...
and made famous by
Judy GarlandJudy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy...
in the 1944 film
Meet Me in St. LouisMeet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 romantic musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of four sisters living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904....
. The song was inspired by a picture of a trolleycar in a children's picture book.
Blane and Martin were nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original SongThe Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
at the 1945 Academy Awards, for "The Trolley Song" but lost to "
Swinging on a Star-Origins:Swinging on a Star was recorded in Los Angeles February 7, 1944 by singer Bing Crosby and released by Decca Records. Legendary crooner Andy Williams and his brothers in The William Brothers Quartet backed up Bing on his 1944 version . His song writer, Jimmy Van Heusen, was at Crosby’s...
" from
Going My WayGoing My Way, a 1944 film directed by Leo McCarey. It is a light-hearted musical comedy/drama about a new young priest taking over a parish from an established old veteran . Crosby sings five songs in the film. It was followed the next year by a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's. This picture was...
. "The Trolley Song" was ranked #26 by the
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
in 2004 on the
100 Years... 100 Songs|Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Songs is a list of the top 100 songs in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute June 22, 2004 in a CBS special hosted by John Travolta, who appeared in two films honored by the list, Saturday Night Fever and...
list. The song as conducted by
Georgie StollGeorgie Stoll was a musical director, conductor, composer and jazz violinist, associated with the Golden Age of MGM musicals and performers from the 1940s to 60s. Born George Martin Stoll, he was also later credited as George E...
for
Meet Me in St. Louis has a very complex, evocative arrangement by
Conrad SalingerConrad Salinger was an American arranger, orchestrator and composer, who studied classical composition at the Paris Conservatoire. He is credited with orchestrating nine productions on Broadway from 1931 to 1938, and over seventy-five motion pictures from 1931 to 1962...
featuring harmonized choruses, wordless vocals, and short highlights or flourishes from a wide range of orchestral instruments.
Frank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
later recorded the song.
The song was a successful single for
The Pied PipersThe Pied Pipers were a popular singing group in the late 1930s and 1940s. Originally they consisted of eight members who had belonged to three separate groups: Jo Stafford from The Stafford Sisters, and seven male singers: John Huddleston, Hal Hopper, Chuck Lowry, Bud Hervey, George Tait, Woody...
, at the time outselling Judy Garland's single.