Over the Rainbow: The Very Best of Judy Garland

by Judy Garland

Overview

Four decades after her death, interest in Judy Garland is at an all-time high. One of the 20th century's signature talents, Garland continues to fascinate and inspire with her unique combination of vocal chops and dazzling personality. The Very Best Of Judy Garland includes a couple of alternate takes ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "Yah-Ta-Ta, Yah-Ta-Ta," a slippery comic duet with Bing Crosby) as well as the landmark versions of "Over the Rainbow," "You Made Me Love You," "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," "The Trolley Song," "Blues in the Night," and "I Got Rhythm" that have forever ensured Garland's reputation as one of the all-time great swinging belters. But on Very Best the ballads are equally astonishing: "Our Love Affair," "The Boy Next Door," "Embraceable You," and "How About You?" prove that Garland's torch burned hotter than an August heatwave. This well-selected, crisply produced 20-track collection does justice to Garland's ongoing legacy.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/13/2007
Label:	Imports
UPC:	0636943256329
catalogNumber:	911645
Rank:	107561

Tracks

1. Over the Rainbow
2. Dear Mr. Gable: You Made Me Love You
3. Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart
4. Our Love Affair
5. I'm Nobody's Baby
6. Friendship
7. It's a Great Day for the Irish
8. How About You?
9. F.D.R. Jones
10. Blues in the Night
11. For Me and My Gale
12. Embraceable You
13. But Not for Me
14. I Got Rhythm
15. The Boy Next Door
16. The Trolley Song
17. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
18. On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe
19. Yah-Ta-Ta, Yah-Ta-Ta (Talk, Talk, Talk)
20. Love

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Judy Garland   Primary Artist
Bing Crosby   Vocals
Gene Kelly   Vocals
E.Y. "Yip" Harburg   Track Performer
Harry Sosnik   Performing Ensemble
Johnny Mercer   Vocals
Victor Young   Performing Ensemble
George Stoll   Performing Ensemble
Merry Macs   Vocals
Victor Young & His Orchestra   Track Performer

Technical Credits

George Gershwin   Composer
Bobby Sherwood   Director,Orchestra Director
Ira Gershwin   Composer
Andy McKaie   Executive Producer
Lynn Murray   Director,Orchestra Director
David Rose   Director,Orchestra Director
Vartan   Art Direction
Joseph Lilley   Director,Orchestra Director
Ron O'Brien   Producer,Liner Notes
Ralph Blane   Composer
Michael Ochs Archives   Photo Courtesy
James V. Monaco   Composer
Joseph McCarthy   Composer
James Hanley   Composer

Editorial Reviews

Unlike most musical film stars, Judy Garland maintained a healthy career as a recording artist separate from her duties at the film studios. Of course, many of the songs she recorded were ones she also performed in her films. But Decca Records, which had unusually close ties to Hollywood and Broadway, recorded her regularly from 1936 to 1947, and she scored a series of record hits for the label, beginning with her signature song, "Over the Rainbow," in 1939. The 90 masters she recorded for Decca have been reissued often over the years, of course, but this 20-track compilation can claim to be, as the press release accompanying it notes, the first full-length, front-line (i.e., full-price) single CD compilation of the recordings. Included are all of Garland's hits of the first half of the '40s as measured on Billboard magazine's best-seller charts of the period: "I'm Nobody's Baby," the '20s song she sang in Andy Hardy Meets Debutante; "For Me and My Gal," the 1917 song she sang with Gene Kelly in the film of the same name; "The Trolley Song" from Meet Me in St. Louis; "Yah-Ta-Ta, Yah-Ta-Ta (Talk, Talk, Talk)," a novelty duet with Bing Crosby; and "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" from The Harvey Girls. Also included are her customized version of "You Made Me Love You," which brought her attention in Broadway Melody of 1938; "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," which she used to audition at MGM in 1935; and three Gershwin songs from Girl Crazy. The result is a reasonable selection of highlights of the Decca material, though one must question the inclusion of two alternate takes (of "Yah-Ta-Ta, Yah-Ta-Ta" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"). A single-disc best-of is not the place to include inferior, if interesting, rarities.

All Music Guide - William Ruhlmann