In August of 1955, Judy signed a five-year recording contract with Capitol Records. She would remain under contract through 1966, having signed another contract in the summer of 1960.

After Judy left Decca Records in 1947, she did not make any studio recordings, outside of her M-G-M soundtrack recordings, until 1953. At that time she signed a four-song contract with Mitch Miller of Columbia Records. The four songs Judy recorded that April 3rd, 1953 were "Send My Baby Back To Me", "Without A Memory", "Go Home, Joe" and "Heartbroken". Columbia also released the soundtrack to Judy's next film, A Star Is Born (released in 1954). Prior to the Columbia deal, Judy signed with RCA/Victor in 1951 but never made any recordings and the short-lived contract was allowed to lapse.

Judy's years with Capitol produced some of the finest recordings in the American popular songbook. Judy made her first studio recordings in stereo for Capitol (excepting the soundtrack pre-recordings for A Star Is Born). Judy's first concert album "Garland At The Grove" was released by Capitol. The first album of recordings from her 1963/64 TV series was also released by Capitol. And of course, there is the historic and still amazing "Judy At Carnegie Hall" in 1961. Many of the songs Judy recorded for Capitol are songs she never sang anywhere else, either on Decca or in concert, while others are studio or live versions of songs she sang in films, concerts, and on radio & TV.

The Garland Capitol records are the best audio representation of Judy's legendary concert years. It is our goal to accurately document Judy's Capitol recordings here in The Judy Garland Discography with as many details and images as possible. If anyone has anything they'd like to contribute that isn't here, feel free to email the webmaster.

All images on this page from the collections of Scott Brogan and Eric Hemphill.