Judy Garland - Judy Garland: Always Chasing Rainbows - A Centenary Tribute (2022)

Released to celebrate her centenary, here is the perfect 2CD compendium of all the most famous songs of the charismatic star who radiated the very soul of show business. Frances Gumm (1922-1969) was as electrifying a performer as ever sang on a concert stage or cinema screen. As “Judy Garland” she shot to teenage stardom in The Wizard Of Oz, then starred in a series of hit movie musicals and remained, despite a stormy private life and erratic health, a revered concert attraction until her early death. She always sang with moving intensity and was utterly convincing in her handling of words and melodies. Garland herself said: “The history of my life is in my songs”, and Retrospective’s new double album of her 55 most celebrated recordings is a veritable audio autobiography that takes the listener Over The Rainbow, through Always Chasing Rainbows to Can This Be The End Of The Rainbow?. It includes her first release, recorded two days after her 14th birthday, the 1936 Stompin’ At The Savoy with Bob Crosby, her celebrated serenading of Clark Gable’s picture You Made Me Love You, then of course her ‘Oz’ triumph. The rest is showbiz history. Memories of her film successes feature strongly throughout: songs from Babes In Arms, For Me And My Gal, Meet Me In St. Louis, Easter Parade and others. Along the way she duets with co-stars Johnny Mercer (Friendship), Gene Kelly (When You Wore A Tulip), Bing Crosby (Yah-Ta-Ta, Yah-Ta-Ta), Dick Haymes (For You, For Me, Forevermore) and Fred Astaire (A Couple Of Swells).