If James Brown is the "hardest working man in show business" Judy Garland—born Francis "Baby" Gumm—has no competition as the hardest working woman. Between 1924 and her death in 1969 she appeared in thirty-two movies (and did voice-overs for two more), thirty television specials, thousands of concerts and performances on Broadway, and she recorded almost one hundred singles and a dozen albums.
There was really never a time when she wasn't working. Her parents were former vaudeville performers who owned a theater in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Judy made her stage debut at the age of two, as part of a song and dance act with her sisters Susie and Jimmie. The Gumm Sisters were popular local attractions, and after getting as far as they could in Grand Rapids their parents decided to take them to California, where the family moved. The girls made regular appearances on radio programs and in night clubs while they took dance and acting classes and tried to break into the movies. The girls were featured in several short films, but Baby was the one who seemed destined for stardom, pending a name change. She was signed by MGM in 1935; the next year, just shy of her fourteenth birthday, she made her first record.
While she made a string of hit musicals, several dramatic films, and a series of perky pictures with fellow child star Mickey Rooney, she is best remembered for The Wizard of Oz and her heartfelt performance of "Somewhere over the Rainbow." "Rainbow" was composed by songwriter Harold Arlen, who had already penned a number of jazz and popular standards, including "Stormy Weather," and "I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues." He and lyricist Yip Harburg sketched the song quickly but felt it wasn't quite right, so they turned to Ira Gershwin for advice. He suggested a more subdued setting (reminding them that the song wasn't really for Judy Garland, but rather, for Dorothy Gale) and the final lines, "If happy little bluebirds fly above the rainbow why can't I?" MGM executives thought the song ruined the pacing of the film and tried to cut it three times before finally deciding to leave it in. The song won the 1940 Oscar for Best Song and became Judy Garland's theme song for life. Her interpretation was so definitive that others who record the song have to take care to come up with a new approach; many sing the verse, which did not appear in the film and which Garland rarely performed.
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Must Haves:
 "The Trolley Song"
"You Made Me Love You"
"Together Wherever We Go" (with daughter Liza Minelli)
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"
Liza Minelli, Donna Summer, Freddie Mercury
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