Essential Judy Garland, The - Judy Garland

...discs and 60 songs, "The essential Judy Garland" covers the 1930's and 40's. It's jammed packed with classics, written by classics, the Gershwins', Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Arlen and Freed, and Roger Edens.

This three-disc compilation is great value for money; my boyfriend brought it for me from Play for about five pounds. It comes in a rather attractive, if not flimsy, slipcase and has a booklet inside with some "rarer" ...
...the CD is the tracklisting, which details the composers, when and where each track was recorded and where the song was taken from. Many of the songs are from films Judy starred in, but there is also a good mixture of tunes she recorded for Decca and Capitol.

There are some great tracks on here and opening this box of delights is Judy's signature song "Over the rainbow". Containing the most beautiful, purest notes in the ... more

Judy Garland's career spanned 45 of her 47 years. From the age of two when she ran out on to the stage of her parents' theatre yelling " I wanna sing some more" till she died from a barbiturates overdose in London, she dedicated her life to entertaining people and in that she succeeded. She gave hundreds of Vaudeville performances with her two sisters, starred in 32 feature films (18 of these in ten years), had her own TV show, gave over 1100 live performances between 1951 and 1969, and recorded over a hundred singles. Now of course they aren't all featured on this album but with three discs and 60 songs, "The essential Judy Garland" covers the 1930's and 40's. It's jammed packed with classics, written by classics, the Gershwins', Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Arlen and Freed, and Roger Edens.

This three-disc compilation is great value for money; my boyfriend brought it for me from Play for about five pounds. It comes in a rather attractive, if not flimsy, slipcase and has a booklet inside with some "rarer" photographs in it. The best part of the packaging of the CD is the tracklisting, which details the composers, when and where each track was recorded and where the song was taken from. Many of the songs are from films Judy starred in, but there is also a good mixture of tunes she recorded for Decca and Capitol.

There are some great tracks on here and opening this box of delights is Judy's signature song "Over the rainbow". Containing the most beautiful, purest notes in the universe, nobody else should ever sing this song, not even somebody as talented as Eva Cassidy was. Sorry, but no. She is still singing like an earthbound angel on " (Dear Mr Gable) You Made Me Love You" and making me swoon, not quite unlike Clark Gable's reaction when she sung it to him for his birthday.

According to legend, "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," is the song that Judy performed for L.B. Mayer at her MGM audition. The song became a Garland standard, as intimately associated her as "Over the Rainbow." and was part of her concert repertoire. The heartfelt "Always Chasing Rainbows" is sung with true gusto, while "I'm Just Wild About Harry" is jam packed with Judy's swell sense of swing.

I love the images I get when I think of "Get Happy" - a sexy svelte Judy in a bowler hat and sheer stockings. Another song that shows off Judy's undeniable talent. Saul Chaplin's vocal arrangement for this number was extremely complicated. Judy heard it three times but then got sick. Two weeks later, she came in, rehearsed it once, and recorded it in about four takes. Yes, She could be volatile, unpredictable, even monstrous, but she was still a professional.

My favourite track is "The Trolley Song" from "Meet Me in St Louis2 (And although I was born too late to see her sing it in person I did get to see her daughter Lorna sing it in London recently). A bouncing version of Cole Porter's "Be A Clown" from The Pirate is here as well as the showstopper from "Easter Parade", "A Couple of Swells". Not to mention a version of Al Jolson's "Swanee" which later appeared in the greatest musical drama ever made "A Star is Born".

Proving that Garland's voice has outlived the triumph and the tragedies, this compilation is full of effortless magic. It shows how much Judy is still very much with us. During "Over The Rainbow" she is the small girl from Kansas telling us "There's No Place Like Home" She's the sunny teenager telling us to "Put on a Show" during "Our Love Affair" and the dazzling "I've Got Rhythm" and she's the dirty baggy tramp throughout "A Couple of Swells"

For many the troubles and turmoil of her life can never be divorced from her prodigal abilities, but the Judy on this album is not the Judy of multiple husbands and drug abuse, it's a testament and a celebration of an exceptional talent and its there for people to discover again and again until the end of the universe.

There isn't the time or space to dissect all the songs featured here, you've all got lives to be getting on with but there are more songs from here movies including The Andy Hardy series, "Girl Crazy", 2Broadway melody of '38", "Babes on Broadway", "Me and My Girl", "The Harvey Girls", "Zeigfield Girl", "Little Nellie Kellie" and "In the Good Old Summertime".

The National Film Theatre once claimed Judy was the greatest star in the history of popular entertainment. This was challenged of course, but once upon a time people disputed that the world was round too.
 

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