The Harvey Girls - Songs

Songs

The songs in The Harvey Girls were all written by Harry Warren (music) and Johnny Mercer:

• "In the Valley (Where the Evening Sun Goes Down)"
• "Wait and See"
• "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"
• "Oh, You Kid"
• "It's a Great Big World"
• "Swing Your Partner Round and Round"
• "The Wild, Wild West"
• "The Train Must Be Fed"

By far the biggest hit from the score of The Harvey Girls was "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe". MGM released the song to record companies even before shooting was finished on the film, and it became an instant hit dominating the airwaves through the summer and fall of 1945, with versions by Bing Crosby with Six Hits and a Miss, Judy Garland and The Merry Macs, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with the Sentimentalists, and, the most popular, Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers. Mercer's version entered the Billboard charts on 5 July 1945, and stayed on it for 16 weeks, including seven straight weeks as #1 between 28 July and 8 September. Crosby's entered the charts on 19 July and stayed ten weeks, going as high as #4, while Dorsey's came on on 2 August and stayed for six weeks, peaking at #6. Garland's hit the Billboard #10 position on 20 September. The song was also number 1 on Your Hit Parade for eight weeks running.

In shooting the number for the film, Garland reportedly did the entire song up to the tempo change in one take, twice.

Cut from the film were three other songs written by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer for it: "March of the Doagies," "Hayride" and "My Intuition." "Doagies" was a production number featuring Judy Garland, and "My Intuition" was a duet for Garland and John Hodiak. Both of those number were filmed, while "Hayride", a duet for Garland and Ray Bolger was prerecorded but not filmed.