ABOUT THE DISC & RECORDINGS:

Recorded live in concert at the London Palladium on November 8th, 1964, as well as their return concert on November 15th, 1964 (only one Liza solo would be included on the album from the November 15th recording).

On November 23, 1964 Judy and Liza recorded vocal tracks for the album in Capitol's London studios, recording these vocals over the orchestra tracks that were made during the November 15th recording. Judy dubbed "Just Once In A Lifetime" (one take); "His Is The Only Music That Makes Me Dance" (two takes); and together Judy and Liza dubbed "Hello, Dolly" (one take); "Don't Rain On My Parade" (three takes); "San Francisco" (three takes); and "Chicago" (two takes - this song used orchestra tracks from the first concert). Liza dubbed new solos of her "Mama" tribute and "Who's Sorry Now?".

Per Scott Schechter's book Judy Garland The Day-By-Day Chronicle Of A Legend, "Part of the reason for recording these new takes is that much of the second concert audiotapes were ruined by a buzzing sound that bled through from some of the television cameras that were videotaping the show that night. For all this effort, the only thing that would be used from this session on the album was the ending of "Hello, Dolly," that occurs after the dialogue between Judy and Liza and the audience."

The November 15th concert was videotaped by ITV British Television. Sadly, only 55 minutes were broadcast, and it's these 55 minutes that have survived. The rest of the footage is lost. The 55 minute show was released on VHS by LaserLight/Delta Music in 1997. The show was subsequently released on DVD on November 19, 2002 by the White Star company both as a single disc and also packaged in a "The Judy Garland Collection" boxed set along with an abridged version of the PBS documentary "The Concert Years", the 1963 TV special with Robert Goulet & Phil Silvers, and "Once In A Lifetime", the 1962 TV special with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

An abridged single record version of the concert was released by Capitol in 1973 (Capitol ST-1191). A German company called "Public Domain" released a 2-CD set of the entire concert (Label Number: PD 2005-2) but it quickly went out of release and is quite rare.

The complete "Live At The London Palladium" has never been officially released on CD. Some songs, (including the previously unreleased "Once In A Lifetime", "Just In Time" & "Don't Rain On My Parade"), were included in the 1991 Capitol boxed set "The One And Only" . Other tracks have been included in several CD compilations such as the 1993 Curb CD "Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli: Together" (released January 12, 1993) and the 1998 Curb CD "It Was A Good Time - The Best of Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli" (released August 4, 1998). The studio overdub of "Don't Rain On My Parade" was released on the 2002 Capitol compilation "Classic Judy Garland: The Capitol Years 1955-1965" along with Judy's haunting "What Now, My Love?"

An announcement was made in 2002 (and then in 2009) that the entire concert, along with rehearsal recordings, was to be released officially in a deluxe 2-CD set. Cover artwork was sent out, and fans everywhere reserved their copies. But the set was never released. The rumor was that "The Family" (The Judy Garland Heir's Trust) was unhappy with the release due to the quality of Judy's voice on several of her vocals. Another rumor was that Judy's second daughter Lorna Luft stopped the release because she (The "Heir's Trust" again) wanted a cut of the profits and/or money for the use of images of Judy. Whatever the real reason is, the set has still never been released. Per Garland hagiographer John Fricke in a November 2008 posting on a Garland discussion group:

Sid [Luft] is the one who stepped in and halted release of the Capital two-disc Palladium concert release. As he'd negotiated Judy's original contract with Capitol in 1955 and at least one of its "renewals" five years later, he was in a position to know that the label wasn't allowed to disseminate any Garland tracks without her approval...or, after her demise, by those representing her.

The crowd of those (whether individuals or corporations) who hold the rights to various aspects of Judy's lifelong workload is a complicated one. In this case, Sid Luft had taken part in semi-regular dealings with various Capitol reps across the decades. When he moved to halt the Palladium release, they listened. And it's one time Sid's truculence served her very well, indeed.

Bootleg CD copies of the master CDs (probably dubbed from a pre-release promotional copy) are easily available on eBay and other online auction site.

In 2010, an official version was finally released. Although it's not the complete, two CD set proposed in the spring of 2009, it IS an expanded version of the original 2-LP set, wonderfully remastered. This release adds "Once In A Lifetime" and "Just In Time" to the line up, as well as moving "The Man That Got Away" to it's proper place (why the original album began with Judy soloing on "The Man That Got Away" never made any sense, Judy never started off a concert with such a serious song!!

There was also a July 1987 British re-release of the original pressing (#EM 1249) with the same cover art as this original,

All images on this page from the collection of Scott Brogan & Eric Hemphill.

Black & white images above and below from the inside and back of the original gatefold album.

Album cover restoration provided by "Alex in Belgium" - thank you Alex!