music, books, love and kindness

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One hundred Judy Garland songs on one collection...for $5.99 on iTunes...a super deal and discovery! It has everything from very well-known tracks like the incredibly good mood-inducing "The Trolley Song" and the emotionally-opposite-end of the spectrum "The Man That Got Away" (perfect for late lonely nights!) to ones less familiar to me, "College Swing" and "All Through The Day."

It's been years since I really gave Judy a good listen and I'm so glad I found Heritage Collection. Her turbulent personal life was matched by her passion for performing and a need to please. As one writer for the New York Times put it:

"The compulsively vibrant, exhausting performances that were her stage hallmark was a seemingly unquenchable need for her audiences to respond with acclaim and affection. And often they did, screaming, 'We love you, Judy--we love you.' "

The writer (no name is attributed to the clipping I found) strongly felt in 1969 that she might have been happier and had a longer career if she had been born during an earlier time, that music halls and the vaudeville world she was pretty much born into suited her better than Hollywood.

Her "sweet singing voice that had a kind of brassy edge to it" just went so well with performing live and made her album Judy: Live At Carnegie Hall would go on to be one of the most famous live recording albums ever.

One of the most informative and insightful articles I've read on Judy Garland. Published in 1969 in the New York Times, it can be read: here