Judy Garland’s place in the annals of popular music would have been all but assured if she had only introduced Harold Arlen and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow” to the world. After all, the Academy Award-winning song from The Wizard of Oz (1939) was ranked the No. 1 Song of the Century by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) and topped a list of the 100 Greatest Movie Songs compiled by the American Film Institute. Garland introduced another venerable standard when she was first to sing Arlen and Ira Gershwin’s torch song to end all torch songs, “The Man That Got Away,” in 1954’s film A Star is Born. But those two classic songs are just the tip of the iceberg for the actress, singer and artist like no other. The U.K. label JSP Records has recognized the full extent of Garland’s immense contributions to the art of popular song, and has set out to compile a collection of the songs she introduced between 1929 and 1962. The four-disc set, entitled Creations 1929-1962: Songs She Introduced, boasts 94 tracks and over five hours of pow!
The set comes with quite a pedigree. JSP has already released a number of Garland collections including 2010’s landmark Lost Tracks, 2011’s singles collection Smilin’ Through and 2012’s reissue of The Historic Concert Remastered. (Carnegie Hall, that is!) Creations has been compiled and annotated by Lawrence Schulman, responsible for not only those three JSP sets but other Garland releases such as Child of Hollywood (RPCD, 1993), Judy Garland at the Paris Olympia (Europe 1, 1994), and Classiques et inédits (Frémeaux & Associés, 2008). Schulman will be joined in the liner notes by a number of other Garland scholars including Christopher Finch (author of Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland, The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms, and Beyond), Will Friedwald (author of A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer’s Art), and John Meyer (author of Heartbreaker, Operation Ruby Slipper). Peter Rynston of Tall Order Mastering, who has remastered the prior JSP sets as well as a number of recent rock and pop releases for Edsel Records, is handling the set’s audio restoration under the supervision of JSP’s John Stedman. Andrew Aitken has designed the package.
There's more after the jump!
The four discs are divided by period: 1929-1940, 1941-1943, 1943-1948 and 1948-1962. The earliest track, “Blue Butterfly,” was Garland’s first solo spot onscreen, from 1929’s Vitaphone short A Holiday in Storyland. The final four tracks, from 1962, are all from Chuck Jones’ UPA animated feature Gay Purr-ee, in which Garland starred as the voice of Turkish Angora cat Mewsette. Along the way, Creations offers rare and lesser-known songs alongside bona fide classics like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “The Trolley Song” and “The Boy Next Door” (all from 1944’s Meet Me in St. Louis), “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” (from 1946’s The Harvey Girls) and “Be a Clown” (from 1948’s The Pirate). On the latter, Garland is joined by Gene Kelly; other duet partners on Creations include Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Mickey Rooney, Allan Jones, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Peter Lawford and her Wizard of Oz compatriots Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Buddy Ebsen, and Bert Lahr. Ebsen, of course, was the original Tin Man until he experienced an adverse reaction to the character’s makeup and was replaced by Jack Haley. Songwriters represented include Harold Arlen, “Yip” Harburg, Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Berlin, Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane, Harry Warren, Johnny Mercer, and many, many others.
A reminder of Garland's rich legacy both on screen and on record, Creations is scheduled for release by JSP on April 1 in the U.K.! You can pre-order below at Amazon U.K., and we'll provide a U.S. link as soon as one is active!
Judy Garland, Creations 1929-1962: Songs She Introduced (JSP Records, 2013)
CD A: IT’S LOVE I’M AFTER 1929-1940
- Blue Butterfly
- Hang On To A Rainbow
- Stompin’ At The Savoy
- Waltz With A Swing/Americana
- The Balboa
- The Texas Tornado
- It’s Love I’m After
- Everybody Sing (with Sophie Tucker)
- Your Broadway And My Broadway
- Yours And Mine
- Swing Mr. Mendelssohn
- Got A Pair Of New Shoes
- Down On Melody Farm (with Allan Jones, Reginald Gardiner, and Lynne Carver)
- Ever Since The World Began/Shall I Sing A Melody?
- Why? Because! (with Fanny Brice)
- It Never Rains But What It Pours
- In Between
- Meet The Beat Of My Heart
- Ten Pins In The Sky
- On The Bumpy Road To Love
- The Jitterbug (with Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Buddy Ebsen, and Bert Lahr)
- Over The Rainbow
- Good Morning (with Mickey Rooney)
- Sweet Sixteen
- Oceans Apart
- Figaro
CD B: WHEN I LOOK AT YOU 1941-1943
- (Can This Be) The End Of The Rainbow
- Nobody
- Drummer Boy
- Do The La Conga (with Mickey Rooney)
- It’s A Great Day For The Irish
- A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow
- Laugh? I Thought I’d Split My Side (with Charles Winninger)
- Our Love Affair
- We Must Have Music (with Tony Martin)
- Minnie From Trinidad
- How About You? (with Mickey Rooney)
- Hoe Down (with Mickey Rooney)
- Chin Up! Cheerio! Carry On!
- Babes On Broadway
- Three Cheers For The Yanks
- Tom, Tom, The Piper’s Son
- When I Look At You
- Paging Mr. Greenback
- The Joint Is Really Jumpin’ Down At Carnegie Hall (with Jose Iturbi at the piano)
- Boys and Girls Like You and Me
- The Trolley Song
- The Boy Next Door
CD C: BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME 1943-1948
- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
- A Great Lady Has An Interview (aka The Interview; Madame Crematante)
- You’ve Got Me Where You Want Me (with Bing Crosby)
- On The Atchison, Topeka And The Santa Fe
- In The Valley (Where The Evening Sun Goes Down)
- My Intuition (with John Hodiak)
- March Of The Doagies
- Hayride (with Ray Bolger)
- Connecticut (with Bing Crosby)
- It’s A Great Big World (with Virginia O’Brien and Marion Doenges)
- Don’t Tell Me That Story
- There Is No Breeze (To Cool The Flame Of Love)
- Love Of My Life
- You Can Do No Wrong
- Voodoo
- Be A Clown (with Gene Kelly)
- Mr. Monotony
- A Couple Of Swells (with Fred Astaire)
- Mack The Black
- It Only Happens When I Dance With You (with Roger Edens at the piano)
- A Fella With An Umbrella (with Peter Lawford)
- Better Luck Next Time
CD D: IT’S A NEW WORLD 1948-1962
- Merry Christmas
- Let’s Go West Again
- If You Feel Like Singing, Sing
- (Howdy, Neighbor) Happy Harvest
- Friendly Star
- All For You (with Gene Kelly)
- You, Wonderful You (with Gene Kelly)
- Send My Baby Back To Me
- Heartbroken
- Without A Memory
- Here’s What I’m Here For
- Gotta Have Me Go With You (with Don McKabe and Jack Harmon)
- The Man That Got Away
- It’s A New World
- Someone At Last
- Lose That Long Face
- Maybe I’ll Come Back
- It’s Lovely To Be Back In London
- The Faraway Part Of Town
- Sweet Danger
- Little Drops Of Rain
- Take My Hand, Paree
- Paris Is A Lonely Town
- Roses Red, Violets Blue
gary clarke says
Wow, what a cover. Seems as if MJ's inspiration wasn't to look like Diana Ross after all. That's just way too scary
Kevin says
What are you talking about?
mike gillispie says
Where.s. I could go on singiing
lschulman says
"I Could Go On Singing" (1962), as well as "I'll Plant My Own Tree" (1967), were both introduced by Judy, but as of the date of the release of the JSP set, both were still under copyright. "I Could Go On Singing" was released in 1963, and "I'll Plant My Own Tree" has, to this day, never been officially released.