album rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Pop / traditional pop / show tunes / American standards / live. Judy at Carnegie Hall is the second live album by Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, 10 June 1922 – London, 22 June 1969), released as a double album on 10 July 1961 by Capitol Records. It is a recording of a concert held at Carnegie Hall in New York City on the night of Sunday 23 April 1961, with Garland backed by a forty-piece orchestra conducted by Mort Lindsey. The original producer was Andy Wiswell; the recording engineer was Robert Arnold. The concert — attended by fellow show business luminaries including Phil Silvers, Richard Burton, Carol Channing, Julie Andrews, Maurice Chevalier and Myrna Loy — has been described ever since as 'the greatest night in show business history.' Garland had begun her career as a child actress, rising to international fame as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and through a string of MGM musicals. By the late 1950s, however, she had become seriously ill — suffering from hepatitis and substance dependency — and was told by doctors she might never perform again. After a long convalescence, she returned to the concert stage in 1960 with a deliberately stripped-back format: no dancers, no vaudeville acts, no elaborate costumes — 'just Judy'. Her 1960–1961 European and North American tour was a triumph. At Carnegie Hall, Garland and her manager Freddie Fields presented this radical simplicity on one of the world's great stages, relying entirely on her voice, her orchestra and her almost mystical connection with her audience. The double album captures not only the songs but the emotional electricity of the occasion. The concert included 'The Trolley Song', 'You Made Me Love You', 'Stormy Weather', 'You Go to My Head', 'A Foggy Day', 'If Love Were All', 'Almost Like Being in Love / This Can't Be Love', 'Do It Again', 'You're Nearer', 'A Foggy Day', 'Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart', 'Alone Together', 'Who Cares?', 'Puttin' on the Ritz', 'How Long Has This Been Going On?', 'Just You, Just Me', 'The Man That Got Away', 'San Francisco', 'I Can't Give You Anything But Love', 'That's Entertainment!', 'Come Rain or Come Shine', 'You're the Top', 'Dirty Hands, Dirty Face' and 'Over the Rainbow.'
Label: Capitol Records (USA), released 10 July 1961.
Producer: Andy Wiswell. Recording engineer: Robert Arnold. Orchestra conducted by Mort Lindsey.
Recording venue: Carnegie Hall, New York City, USA. Recorded live on 23 April 1961.
Critical reception: The concert was immediately recognised as a historic occasion. Variety wrote: 'The tones are clear, the phrasing is meaningful and the vocal passion is catching. In fact, the audience couldn't resist anything she did.' The New York Post noted: 'Last night, the magnetism was circulating from the moment she stepped on stage.' Cash Box praised 'a solid hour-and-a-half of fabulous entertainment by Miss Showbusiness.' Pitchfork critic Harry Tafoya described the album as 'a late-career triumph', emphasising that 'the singer and her audience were in perfect sync with one another.' It is now in the United States Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
Commercial success: Judy at Carnegie Hall was an enormous commercial success. The double album spent 73 weeks on the Billboard charts, including 13 weeks at number 1. It was certified Gold by the RIAA. It won five Grammy Awards: Album of the Year (making Garland the first woman to win the award, and the first concert recording to do so), Best Female Vocal Performance, Best Engineered Album, Best Album Cover, and one further award. The album has never gone out of print. A 2001 expanded CD reissue added previously unreleased material — including Garland's spoken monologues and a false start — reaching number 20 on internet sales charts and number 26 on Billboard's Top Pop Catalog Albums.
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