ABOUT THE DISC & RECORDINGS:

This has to be one of the worst CD releases in years.

The cover art is the first clue.  It misspells “You’re” as “Your” in the title of “When You’re Smiling.”  It features a photo not from Carnegie Hall but from the film Judy made one year later “I Could Go On Singing.”  The set splits the concert not at the intermission but after “Stormy Weather.”  The set added non-related tracks from Judy’s pre-Carnegie Hall studio albums.  As if that isn't enough, this two disc set sold for a bargain basement low price of around $15.00. 

The liner notes aren’t really notes at all, and they’re incorrect.  No authorship is provided.  Liner notes or booklets can be overlooked if the errors are minor, but these are simply wrong.

The real travesty is in the content.  The sound quality is tinny and the concert sounds a bit sped up.  Each song from the concert is split up as a separate track.  Each one fades out (usually very slowly), then a pause, then the next one fades in. Some start right off with the music only to fade out as the others do.  In other words, the concert is gone and in its place is what would seem (especially to anyone who’s never heard it before) to be a compilation of live performances.  It’s presented like a compilation or studio album.  To make matters worse, the fade-in to “Over the Rainbow” doesn’t finish until after Judy begins singing.  Her voice is low then gets louder with the fade-in.  Did that happen at the concert?  The same thing happens on a few of the other tracks such as “That’s Entertainment!” and “You’re Nearer.”  This Delta set is bad.  Just bad.

As if the above isn’t enough, the set completely omits what little chatter there was from the original LP.  The famous “Do you really want more? Aren’t you tired?”, “I know, I’ll sing ‘em all and we’ll stay all night!” and the rest of the spoken bits are gone.  The exception is Judy’s “One, two, one-two-three.  Ooh, it worked!” prior to “Who Cares?” and “I don’t know…” prior to “How Long Has This Been Going On?” both of which had to be included because they overlap the beginning of the numbers.  Inexplicably Judy’s additional “One, two, one-two-three” prior to “Just You, Just Me” is included.  After Judy’s last song, “Chicago,” the “concert” fades out.  No “Goodnight! God Bless” from Judy as on all previous releases, including the original LP.

Taking only the songs, and no talking, in order to avoid copyright issues, the label, I suspect, used the expanded 2001 version as their source.  It makes sense as it’s obvious the label and producers had no clue what was and wasn’t included in the original LP release, nor the expanded release.  They simply took each song and added the fades.  There are no production credits and no author credits, only the label information.  Talk about a “hack job.”

Bad, very bad.

CLICK HERE to read The Judy Garland News and Events blog post about this release.