Customer Reviews

A & E Biography: A (Musical) Anthology [ENHANCED CD]

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This remarkable collection put together from segments of A&E's Biography of Judy Garland is like hearing Judy's life told through the songs. The first song, "Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart" harks back to Garland's start on the road to stardom. "Over the Rainbow" confirms Garland's status as a superstar. "I Don't Care" and "Maybe I'll Come Back" are nostalgic MGM numbers Garland made famous. "The Palace Medley" remembers Garland's first steps on the stage of the Palace to sing for an audience. "The Man That Got Away"... the old favorite from Garland's "A Star Is Born". "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands"... the last decade of her life, one of her only concerts with daughter Liza Minnelli. The final number, "It's All For You" (recorded six months before her death) is significant in many respects. It is a look back on a significant career, and a remarkable life... and a love letter to the people who loved her. For the true Garland fan, this one is definitely one to put on the list of CDs to buy.

A & E released a small series of musical anthology enhanced CDs in conjunction with their familiar Biography series. This CD features 17 various tracks covering much of Judy Garland's incredible career. Rather than produce yet another greatest hits CD, the folks who put this album together apparently tried to capture various sounds and personas of the Garland magic, mixing in several less familiar tracks alongside a good sampling of immortal favorites. The one real weakness of this CD, though, is its heavy emphasis on Judy's later career; you won't find very many songs from the adorable early Judy Garland here. That's perfectly fine, of course, but personally I would have liked a more representative selection covering Judy's entire career. In addition to some nice biographical material contained in the liner notes, this item holds a truly precious gem in the form of a previously unreleased performance by Garland some six months before her untimely death.

I think it's a felony not to include Judy's trademark song on a collection such as this, and the version of Over the Rainbow included here is a particularly impressive one; the amount of passion Judy puts into the song is palpable, with Judy sniffling with very real emotion toward the end. Somewhat strangely, a 38 second cut of We're Off To See the Wizard also finds a place on the disc. I'm really not sure when I Don't Care was recorded but it sounds like the recording of a young Judy. That's basically it for the early recordings. Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart and "The Garland Medley" of You Made Me Love You/For Me and My Gal/The Trolley Song are songs from Judy's first decade in Hollywood, but the recordings of these songs found on this CD actually come from Judy's historic 1960 London recording sessions.

Judy's incredible performance of The Man That Got Away from A Star is Born demands inclusion here, and we get a spirited live performance of this trademark song of her later career. Two songs that always brought the house down when performed in concert, the ubiquitous Rock-A-Bye Your Baby (With a Dixie Melody) and Come Rain or Come Shine, appear here in the form of studio recordings. Both of these tracks, powerful and almost boisterous even without the inspiration and energy of a live audience, are, if I'm not mistaken, taken from Judy's aforementioned 1960 London sessions. Maybe I'll Come Back is another song I usually think of in a live performance context that appears here as a studio recording. Among the remaining studio recordings to be found here are Hello Bluebird, a joyous song sung enthusiastically by Judy, the energetic After You've Gone, and the always soul-stirring Danny Boy.

There are a select few live recordings on the CD as well, though, including perhaps the second most puzzling selection for this anthology, The Party's Over. Daughter Liza Minelli joins Judy for a memorable live performance of He's Got the Whole World in His Hands; this is a nice song to have because it is not among the most prominent of the Judy/Liza recordings, but there are a number of much better selections out there to choose from. The best of the live recordings has to be Just in Time; Judy knocked them dead at Carnegie Hall with this amazing performance, and few recordings better show the absolute love audiences had for her. Another highlight of this album is Judy's Palace Medley. This medley consists of songs performed by other entertainers over the years at the legendary Palace, and while Judy did sing this medley during her own historic run in that glorified venue, this track is yet another recording from the 1960 London Sessions.

Of course, the track that catches the eye of the Judy Garland fan is It's All For You. This is a previously unreleased recording of a December 1968 performance on the Tonight Show. Garland, scarcely six months away from the end of her illustrious career, sounds somewhat frail and unsure of herself as she begins the song, but the eternal Judy shines through by the time she closes the number. Any Garland fan will want to own this CD for this one historic track alone.

I should mention that this is an enhanced CD, meaning there are extra features available for those with a PC. In all honesty, the extras aren't that impressive, consisting almost solely of a short "biography byte" that is little more than a narrated slide show encapsulating Judy's unparalleled career. As a rabid Judy fan, I tend to do a little nit-picking with this CD, but I do consider it a very nice, respectful tribute to the one and only Judy Garland.

Judy Garland is most definitely one of the greatest performers of the 20th century. This album, A&E Biography: A Musical Anthology, contains many of her well-known hits. In addition, the listener experiences the maturation of Judy from her early "Over the Rainbow" to her legendary "Hello Bluebird!" Other highlights of this CD include live performances of the songs "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart!" and the medley of "You Made Me Love You/For Me and My Gal/The Trolley Song". However, probably the best feature on this album for the true Judy fan is the inclusion of the previously unreleased "It's All For You" from the Tonight show. This last performance, recorded only months before her death, sums up her entire life as a performer. Overall, this is a great CD for everyone and well worth purchasing, whether you are a Judy fanatic or just a casual fan.

This album is so good. I had always known that Capitol Records can produce a good Judy Garland CD. Not one bad song on this album, except He's Got the Hole World, because Liza messes it up Overall, this is a decent look of Garland's career.

What a great collection! From the terrific song selections, to the CD bookelt (which includes a full yet concie bio and many pictures) to Judy's performances, this is one CD that's sure to please die-hard fans as well as newer ones. Most of these selections are concert recordings which really show how much Judy gave in live performances. Highlights for me were the energitc 'Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart' and 'I Don't Care' as well as the previously un-released 'It's All For You'. A song that perfectly sums up her career and she knows it. My only qualm woud be that for a career overview, her early career isn't paid enough attention. But by the end of the CD all I want to do, is put it on again...and again...and again...

This is an "enhanced" CD, which I'm not sure I know exactly what that means. However, I do know that it did not play when I put it in my computer's CD Rom drive. Instead, I got a message that I needed to install Quicktime. After attempting to install it, it still refused to play, telling me again that Quicktime was not installed. Perhaps I am not a patient man, but I ended up throwing the CD away--it just seems not worth the trouble. As far as the music and price goes I have no quibble. Judy is a wonderful performer, and this appears to be a good selection.

This is probably in the top three of my favorite Garland CDs in my collection.As well as that, this also was one of my first Garland CDs; I had gotten it in the early days of when I just had just discovered Garland's magic. I don't know if I would have become a hardcore Garland fan if I hadn't received this CD as a Birthday gift.

The song selections on this CD are wonderful. Provided on this CD are some of Garland's greatest studio recordings, specifically with Capitol Records. Including such masterpieces as "Come Rain or Come Shine" and the belting version of "Over The Rainbow". Although I thought it was a little weird that "We're off to see the Wizard" was included on this CD. It kind of seemed a little Random, considering the song is only like thirty seconds it really doesn't display much vocals. But besides that, the song selection was great.

One other thing I really liked about this album is that it has great Notes and information in the booklet; Looking very professional. Also included is when you insert the CD into the computer, you get a whole special exclusive video and written mini- biography of Garland.

I would defiantly recommend this to any new, or neutral Garland fan. It will take you into a world of Garland you can't but resist take more interest into. If it wasn't a good CD, it wouldn't have been on sale online and in stores for 10+ years.

This is an excellent CD both quality and Value wise for all Judy Garland Fans, with many "live" tracks and top notch session recordings from movie soundtracks, An absolute must for all Judy Garland fans and fans of Capitol world class artists.