The Trolley Song (song)

"The Trolley Song" is a song written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and made famous by Judy Garland in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis. In a 1989 NPR interview, Blane said the song was inspired by a picture of a trolleycar in a turn-of-the-century newspaper.

Blane and Martin were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 1945 Academy Awards, for "The Trolley Song" but lost to "Swinging on a Star" from Going My Way. "The Trolley Song" was ranked #26 by the American Film Institute in 2004 on the 100 Years... 100 Songs list. The song as conducted by Georgie Stoll for Meet Me in St. Louis has a very complex, evocative arrangement by Conrad Salinger featuring harmonized choruses, wordless vocals, and short highlights or flourishes from a wide range of orchestral instruments. When the song was recorded on the set of Meet Me in St Louis, it was done in a single shot which was unusual then and is still rare today.

Covers

 * Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan each later recorded the song.
 * Herb Alpert featured the song on Herb Alpert's Ninth of 1967.
 * Rufus Wainright sang the song in his 2007 re-creation of Garland's 1961 Carnegie Hall concert. The performance is featured on the DVD Rufus! Rufus! Rufus! Does Judy! Judy! Judy!: Live From the London Palladium.
 * A Portuguese version of the song appears on João Gilberto's album João Gilberto en Mexico (1970).
 * Five versions of the song charted in 1944-45. Garland's single and a version by Vaughn Monroe both peaked at number four, but the biggest hit version was by The Pied Pipers, which hit number two on Billboard magazine's "Best Sellers in Stores" chart the week of December 16, 1944.
 * Dave Brubeck - Fantasy 535 Dave Brubeck - Trolley Song (1953)
 * Stevie Holland - Almost Like Being In Love (2003)
 * Stacey Kent - The Boy Next Door (2003)
 * The London Gay Men's Chorus performed an arrangement of the song, with choralography, during its 21st anniversary concert, A Band of Brothers, at the Royal Festival Hall in May 2012 (video).