Judy at Carnegie Hall

Judy Garland

album cover

The Return of a Beloved Voice

When Judy Garland began rehabbing her career in the late 1950s, she had few options. She was overweight, addicted to uppers and downers, and battling hepatitis (in the process of recovery, she eventually weaned herself off drugs). She couldn't get much going in Hollywood, where movie musicals were out of fashion. So she turned to recording, and beginning in 1955, made an album a year—among the highlights of this "recording artist" phase is That's Entertainment!, which features her with a small jazz group.

To solidify her comeback, Garland followed a strategy used by countless other entertainers on the rebound, and performed to rave reviews in London, Paris, and Amsterdam. These ditched the lavish productions (and costumes) of her previous live shows, and put the emphasis on the singing—on Garland's crisp diction and knack for reshaping a theme. This two-disc set comes from 1961, and is one of the first shows Garland did upon returning to the U.S. It is uniformly enchanting, with rhapsodic ballads done in patient rubato and snazzier up-tempo numbers that flatter Garland's still movingly idealistic voice.

The orchestra, conducted by Mort Lindsay, helps the former Dorothy make the most of her material: On "Almost Like Being in Love" and several other songs, the musicians slow things to a crawl for the final verse, encouraging Garland to fashion a dramatic finish. At one point on disc 2, Garland wisecracks about singing all night, but she had too much showbiz sense for that: She was smart to finish the evening while she was still bringing these tunes to dazzling peaks.

Genre: Vocals
Released: 1961, Capitol
Key Tracks: "Stormy Weather," "Almost Like Being in Love"
Catalog Choice: That's Entertainment!
Next Stop: Barbra Streisand: The Broadway Album
After That: Rufus Wainwright: Does Judy at Carnegie Hall
Book Pages: 300–301