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JUDY GARLAND PhD PROGRAM
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The Garland of those artful, captivating later-career musical performances onstage was the product of a decade-long career as a child singer on the vaudeville circuit in the 20s and 30s, and a legendary 28-year career as a movie musical mega-star, fifteen of which were spent at MGM. Judy Garland was the biggest female money-maker for MGM in the 1940s. She was a gigantic super-star. Those MGM musicals are to die for -- the absolute pinnacle of the color-saturated movie musical era, rendered from within the vast movie machine that was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the Tiffany of Hollywood studios. L.B. Mayer's motto was "make it big, make it good, and give it class." Nobody did movie musicals like MGM.
Judy Garland was a child prodigy groomed within the efficient cogs of that dream factory -- the little girl with the grown-up voice who became an icon.
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BACHELORS DEGREE
The Movies
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Waltz with a Swing
[Her MGM introduction; newly signed -- a virtuoso at 13.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd7DcD79wK0
Texas Tornado
[Her only loan-out, to Paramount; she captured the industry's attention.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJHhcsoXeRk
Dear Mr. Gable
[A star is born. Not the movie. The real thing.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GSfxK3MMDE
Over The Rainbow
[Super-stardom. The Rosetta Stone — voted the favorite song of the twentieth century.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU
Off To See the Wizard
[And off into immortality.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jknhvVk1Fs0
Good Morning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyx201jLwBg
Singin' In the Rain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e57fVqg0BpI
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It's a Great Day for the Irish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrt_PA5PflM
But Not For Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X03uSwM07_A
Embraceable You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5TrNfV5mXE
Bidin' My Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQdIwjbW6es
Minnie from Trinidad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip88WsCkYKg
The Trolley Song
[Mega-stardom.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwP6kNIDg30
The Boy Next Door
[The full star treatment.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVD7mVsCfaA
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
[A timeless holiday classic is born.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CreWsnhQwzY
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MASTERS DEGREE
Superstardom
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The Valley Where the Evening Sun Goes Down
[The sublime pinnacle.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIrFxWq_C9A
On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe
[This lavish musical number shows the fabulous MGM musical machine in full-throated motion. Big, sumptuous and expensive.]
Part 1
[When the video freezes stop and go to Part 2]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S87evkiu4iA
Part 2:
[This gigantic number representing a vast untamed wilderness is all brought down into Judy Garland’s face at its close. Amazing.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qBBc4lgO9I
The Great Lady Gives an Interview
[A mini-masterpiece of parody, sardonically skewering the celebrity culture.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUYa-mcGnOM
Who?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_9R0vrvYa8
Johnny One Note
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxJlcVYBvOY
Mack The Black
Fella With An Umbrella
I Don’t Care
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfKxbDG78LM
Friendly Star
Get Happy
[Ultra-chic, ultra-sophisticated -- and her last number for MGM.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7d0NRewzW4
The Man that Got Away
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNDu75gEiIo
A New World
[Exquisite nuance.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mf4sczAAak
Judy also kept up with some of the best hoofers in the business:
Ballin' the Jack (with Gene Kelly)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWryDF_yyH0
When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam (with Fred Astaire)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izSCwP_4YGU
The Barn Dance (with Gene Kelly)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEVS7opoyI4
Some of her best work ended on the cutting room floor, but has been rescued and restored. These are three of my favorites in her entire canon, and no audience ever saw them in their time.
My Intuition
[Such deft light comedy.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H1pn0yI5A8
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March on Little Doagies
[Big and lavish.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpVkWg_C4qY
Mr. Monotony
[Too cool for school. Very hip. This outfit later ended up in "Get Happy".]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRYZ7Z4909s
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DOCTORATE
Legend
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So we've viewed the manifest body of work (only a fraction of her full canon) of a movie star, and what emerged in the aftermath was a blazing meteor of singular vocal superiority. What follows, here, is a catalogue among the true treasures of recorded masterworks in the twentieth century.
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Old Man River
[Folks, this is a metaphysical masterpiece]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GUP7bsDPXg
Cottage for Sale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4tbg98DZ9k
As Long as He Needs Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT0ms9UdxcE
This duet is legendary. Garland / Streisand. 1963.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Euvz1s70iQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFVxX3RtyhQ
Exceptional musicanship -- cool and sophisticated and classy:
The Sweetest Sounds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0uKZ2rrw2I
Just In Time
[This arrangement! Incredible.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM90VRniO5E
Come Rain or Come Shine
[This is bad-to-the-bone! I dare you to watch this to the end and not feel electrified inside… like, for real electrical. It’s pure electricity aimed at you. It still translates in the recorded medium.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrImS_qSTUs
Smile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAQfwpEDdOw
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By Myself
[Zellweger sings this in her movie, but not like THIS. The real Garland KILLS this song. She makes it an indictment, a missile she hurls. Incredible.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8E9zU42cdo
[She repeated it, with even more poignant and devastating effect a few months later. It’s so powerful on the central nervous system that I get exhausted watching her because it triggers so much adrenaline.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnZ0FSrMn54
I'll Show Them All
[With Steve Allen, who wrote the song.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O0qz8M79vc
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Through the Years
[Garland's personal favorite song.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KkxrQvyXJI
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Pure soul.
Battle Hymn of the Republic
[This is not of this earth. It’s truly transcendent. She even gets all tongue-tied on a few lyrics but it doesn’t matter. The emotion drives it through. This is an historical document, in truth; an anthem to her just-slain friend JFK -- an event which changed our nation. And the decision to perform this cemented her fate with CBS.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RBOBFTnW04
America the Beautiful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaPkkOYg4cQ
Absolute magic:
[Of all the marvelous songs this wonderful artist performed, in the end, this may be my very favorite. I love this message, and I love her delivery.]
Once In a Lifetime
[Skip to the 4:40 mark for the intended song; or enjoy them both. Judy looks like the Joker by the end when she pulls that hat off, as if only the crazy dare to holler “For this is my moment, my destiny calls me. And though it may be just once in my lifetime, I’m gonna do great things.” This is a high, elevated tragedienne theatre arts performance. Stunning.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ul6SVZsy10
[And then a few years later at “The Hollywood Palace”, just a few years before she died. Wizened, and incredible. When she hits “GREAT things”… well, damn.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGSlQGkLKY0
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And, parenthetically, as a button, one of her rarer later performances just a few years before her death when she was in fine voice and having a high old good time reminding everyone that the bona fide living legend could still bring it.
What Now My Love?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-clJy7n6tn0
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