TCB - It seems that's where the technique goes back to - the first successful musical with a plot built entirely around existing popular songs seems to be the movie "Singing' in the Rain." From Wikipedia: “Singin’ In The Rain originally conceived by MGM producer Arthur Freed, the head of the "Freed Unit" responsible for turning out MGM's lavish musicals, as a vehicle for his catalog of songs written with Nacio Herb Brown…”
Freed and Brown added “Make ‘Em Laugh” (which some call a “homage” to Cole Porter’s “Be A Clown” - but Porter didn't sue, of course, as close as it feels), and “Moses Supposes” was written by Roger Edens and Comden & Green, based on a famous tongue-twister.
The "Singing' in the Rain" pre-exisiting songs were mostly the jukebox songs in their era.
The term "jukebox musical" didn't exist then, and I think the term was meant as belittling.
I suspect that's why the term "catalog musical" was thought up along the way.