Greatest Hits Live

Performer: Judy Garland
Engineer: Paul Reid III
Producer: John Fricke (Compilation)
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Judy Garland (vocals). From a glance at the title, listeners could be forgiven for considering Greatest Hits Live a budget-label collection with muddy sound and shoddy notes. In fact, it's another compilation from Savoy Jazz of material dating to Judy Garland's early-'60s television show and specials. Material from the same sessions have been coming out for several years -- Great Day! Rare Recordings from The Judy Garland Show and That Old Feeling: Classic Ballads from The Judy Garland Show were both solid titles -- but the well was running dry with the release of this title. With little more to unify it than the fact that these were Garland's best-loved songs, performed at a similar moment in her career, it becomes rather a hodgepodge of versions recorded in different settings with different aims in their original presentations. Garland's famous "Judy at the Palace" medley is a highlight, but it's one of the few here. Granted, it's far better than the average budget collections that litter the Judy Garland section, but it's not the place to turn for anyone but the most dedicated fan. ~ John Bush

It was Judy Garland, not Bing Crosby, who inherited Al Jolson's mantle as America's premier 20th-century entertainer. Possessing both the voice and pure show-biz sensibility for the requisite broad gesture, her own emotional vulnerabilities also gave a special depth to every single performance.

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