Early review of new Freméaux & Associés CD antholody "Judy Garland – Classiques et inédits – 1929-1956"

This is without a doubt a must-have for Garland fans. Not since 1998’s “Judy” boxed set has any one release covered such a wide range of Judy’s career. And done so with such class.

The set is packaged in the “old style” sturdy double jewel case with a beautifully printed 28 page booklet in both French and English, with liner notes written by co-producer Lawrence Schulman.

The following are some highlights and favorites after a couple of initial listens:

[a complete track listing is at the end of this review]

DISC ONE:

The first disc covers Judy’s film and commercial recordings from her 1929 film shorts through her 1956 Capitol LP “Judy”. It’s a good mix, with a few surprise. Here are my favorites:

“Blue Butterfly” and (prophetically) “Hang On To A Rainbow” were both recorded in November/December of 1929 (no actual date is known). These are Judy Garland’s earliest film solos, and the earliest known recordings of Garland’s voice. She sounds like a typical little girl, yet powerful even at this tender age. The sound quality is very good, especially when considering that these are taken from the original Vitaphone discs (the actual film footage has yet to be discovered). It’s amazing these have survived for almost 80 years! Lucky for us Vitaphone used a disc method for their early sound film, so even though the film doesn’t survived, the audio does.

Next up is Judy’s first single for Decca Records, the 1936 “Stompin’ At The Savoy“. At the time, Garland was the youngest artist ever be signed to a recording contract. That previous fall of 1935 she had just signed her first contract with MGM Studios. This single was recorded in New York just two days past her 14th birthday while she was on an MGM promotional tour – even though she hadn’t made an MGM film yet. Bob Crosby & His Orchestra accompany Judy on this and the flip side “Swing, Mr. Charlie”. Judy was such a newcomer that Crosby declined credit on the record, not wanting to be associated with an unknown little girl singer! Just 7 years later Crosby & His Orchestra would appear (and accompany) the newly minted MGM star Garland in her 1943 film Presenting Lily Mars – with full screen credit of course!

All of the Decca recordings on this release are remastered from from original 78rpm discs. Due to this, they all have a sort-of “old record” sound that I found quite enjoyable. It gives the recordings a vintage quality, and I could hear a few vocal inflections in Judy’s voice that I don’t recall hearing in previous CD releases.

“I’m Just Wild About Harry” is taken from a very rare Brunswick 78 disc (#02969B). Judy recorded for Decca Records on July 29, 1939 but it was never released in the United States. It was only available in the U.K. on the Brunswick label in 1943, until 1984 when Decca Records included it on the wonderful LP “From The Decca Vaults”. The sound quality here has a bit of a loud “blast” to it, but it’s still enjoyable.

MGM Records tracks:

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the MGM soundtrack entries. The sound quality on all of these tracks is very good, with the original mono coming through crisp and clear. These differ from the “official” Rhino soundtracks released over the past 10 years in that they’re remastered directly from the original MGM Records 78s. MGM Records, due to the time constraints of the 78s of the day, presented abridged or altered versions of songs that in most cases differed from how were performed in the actual films. One could consider these to be the “singles” versions of the songs. If available, Rhino Records used the original pre-recording session masters – which also (in many cases) differed slightly from how the songs were performed in the film and also how they were presented on vinyl by MGM Records.

“Over The Rainbow” (The Wizard Of Oz – 1939): Sure, this has been reissued countless times over the years, but it’s still a favorite. And infinitely better than the Rhino Records version with that annoying volume increase on Judy’s second “someWHERE”. Why Rhino has never fixed this in the 10+ years since they first released their “restored” soundtrack is beyond me! As much as I enjoy Judy’s later renditions of this song (see second CD below), this will always be my all-time favorite.

“Who?” (Till The Clouds Roll By – 1946): Judy filmed this number while in the early stages of her pregnancy with Liza, and found it amusing to be running up to a plethora of chorus boys asking the question “Who?”. It’s one of the best numbers she ever committed to film. Again, it’s great to have a high quality version of this MGM Records “single”.

[NOTE: The 1946 album for Till The Clouds Roll By is the first official movie soundtrack album ever produced with songs taken “directly from the soundtrack” of the film. The idea of the newly formed MGM Records.]

“You Can Do No Wrong” (The Pirate – 1948): A great but underrated Cole Porter song. Judy’s rendition is, of course, perfection.

“Better Luck Next Time” (Easter Parade – 1948): Irving Berlin’s super-sad song effectively conveys the loss we’ve all felt at least once in our lives. This MGM Records version is, for my money, better than the expanded Rhino Records version.

“Get Happy” (Summer Stock – 1950): This was the last number Judy recorded and filmed for MGM. The fidelity on this remastering is the best to date that I’ve heard of its many appearances on CD.

1953 Columbia Records singles:
“Heartbroken“, “Go Home Joe”, “Send My Baby Back To Me“, “Without A Memory“

In 1953, Judy signed a contract with Columbia Records. Only the four singles included here and one LP (the soundtrack to 1954’s A Star Is Born) came from the short-lived association. Originally recorded on April 3, 1953 in mono, the singles didn’t make much of a splash when originally released. They had been reissued a few times on LP over the years, plus on one CD released by Sony in 1999 called “The Ladies Of Show Biz” and featuring these 4 tracks by Judy and several by Carol Channing (an interesting coupling if there ever was one).

As presented here, these tracks are the real jewels of this first disc. They were restored by the late Robert Parker in 2002. Per the liner notes, they were remastered into surround sound using “PRO LOGIC” decoding, from circa 1953 Columbia DJ vinyl 78’s that Parker had recently purchased. They sound AMAZING! The best I’ve ever heard these tracks sound. They’re not “true” stereo, but they sure sound that way. Very clear and robust.

DISC TWO:

I really enjoyed this second disc. All but one track (“Zing! Went the Strings of my Heart“) are new to CD, and most are very rare. All are radio performances. The sound quality varies due to the variety of sources. This is to be expected on any anthology of radio performances from the 1930’s through 50’s. In many cases the only surviving records we have of these vintage shows are old “air check” discs. In other cases, the discs have been transferred over the years to tape or CD-R which are the only records left. Remember, these old discs are brittle and were never meant to last forever anyway.

[NOTE: Some of these performances have been available on The Judy Room MP3 page, but they sound better here!]

I could just list all of the tracks, as I really enjoyed them all, but so far my favorites are:

“My Heart Is Taking Lessons” from “Good News of 1938” (April 21, 1938), a fun ditty that Judy does tongue-in-cheek as only she could.

“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” from a promotional record made by MGM for broadcast on the radio to promote the film Everybody Sing, 1938. Again, this sounds great – and Judy has obvious fun with the song.
[My hunch is that this is from the MGM pre-recording session October 24, 1937. It was standard for MGM to send out discs to radio stations containing “air trailers” that usually included songs – and sometimes outtakes – from the pre-recording sessions.]

“Daddy” from “The Chase And Sanborn Hour” (September 7, 1941), a very typical 1940’s swingy type of song that Judy puts over with ease.

“Over The Rainbow” from “Music For A Sunday Afternoon” (July 4, 1943)
This is a fantastic version of the timeless song, with a male chorus coming in to repeat part of the song before Judy comes back for the ending – very nice!

“Smiles” – this song, unfortunately, has been remastered at a slower speed. The producers of the set have told me that this was a mistake and that wrong remastered track was put in. Chalk it up to “human error”. Nothing is perfect and on a set this good, it’s easy to overlook one clunker.

THE FINAL ANALYSIS:

Again, a definite “must-have” for Judy fans, Judy fanatics, and the “Judy curious”. This set has something for everyone, and effectively presents the many facets of Judy’s voice. Everyone listening to this will enjoy hearing her go from child vaudevillian to superstar – an amazing progression from a once in a lifetime talent. And a wonderful anthology that celebrates Judy’s genius at her very best.