Mary Astor fondly remembered working on "Listen, Darling" with the 16-year-old Judy Garland. "She was so young and vital - it was no act. Something would strike her as funny, and her face would get red, and 'There goes Judy!' would be the cry. And we just had to wait until she got over it. She was a kid, a real kid. It didn't take long for her to get over that."
This would be the first of two occasions in which Mary Astor would play Judy Garland's mother. The second being Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).
Judy Garland sings a slow version of the song she originally sang for her MGM audition, "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart." For "Listen, Darling" the song was also prerecorded with a hot second chorus, but that version was shelved in favor of a gentler approach in the final cut.
Then child stars Scotty Beckett and Judy Garland would go on to die 13 months apart: Beckett in May 1968 and Garland in June 1969. Both child stars died from barbiturate overdoses and both died at a young age: Beckett at 38 and Garland at 47.
Judy Garland's third song "Ten Pins in the Sky," had a melody by Milton Ager. He and his wife were early Garland champions, having heard her at a Coconut Grove function in her pre-stardom days.
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