Judy Garland - The Garland Variations: Songs She Recorded More Than Once (5 CD, 2014)

 

A set consisting of five compact discs of songs performed by a single artist might seem like a bonanza to the singer's loyal fan base. It also could be daunting even to fervent followers when each song is followed by anywhere from one to four different recorded versions of the same number. 

Judy Garland opens JSP Records’  5-CD box set The Garland Variations: Songs She Recorded More Than Once (JSP 975) with “Everybody Sing,” the kind of rousing showstopper she was practically born to sing. Sessions for the song from MGM’s Broadway Melody of 1938 began when Garland was on the cusp of just fifteen years old, but the power of her vocal instrument was already in place. But even when belting with a force to rival the mighty Merman, there was always something unfailingly intimate – or personal – about a Judy Garland performance. There’s plenty of that intimacy, as well as that power, on this illuminating new set produced by JSP’s John Stedman and compiled and annotated by Lawrence Schulman.

VA - Great Vocalists of Jazz & Entertainment [2004] Vol. 11-15 of 20

 

In this collection by the German "History" label, you get nearly 40 hours of digitally remastered original 78s and 45s. The sound quality is truly amazing - the remastering process removes hiss, clicks & pops; optimizes the equalization, and synthesizes stereo. The forty discs in this set are grouped into twenty 2-disc volumes which are dedicated to a vocalist or pair or vocalists.

Volume 11. Dinah Washington — You Can Depend On Me
Volume 12. Mildred Bailey — It Had To Be You
Volume 13. Judy Garland — I’m Nobody’s Baby
Volume 14. Sarah Vaughan — If You Could See Me Now
Volume 15. Dinah Shore — Who’s Sorry Now

Judy Garland - Over The Rainbow 1936-1952 (4 CD, 2005/FLAC)

 Singer/actress Judy Garland had a varied career that began in vaudeville and extended into movies, records, radio, television, and personal appearances. She is best remembered as the big-voiced star of a series of movie musicals, particularly The Wizard of Oz, in which she sang her signature song, "Over the Rainbow." But unlike most other film stars of her era, she also maintained a career as a recording artist, and after her movie-making days were largely over, she was able to transfer her stardom to performing and recording, culminating in her Grammy-winning number one album Judy at Carnegie Hall.