Judy at Carnegie Hall
| Judy at Carnegie Hall | ||||
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| Live album by Judy Garland | ||||
| Released | July 10, 1961 | |||
| Recorded | April 23, 1961 | |||
| Venue | Carnegie Hall | |||
| Genre | Jazz vocal | |||
| Length | 122:51 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Judy Garland chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
Judy at Carnegie Hall is a two-record live recording of a concert by Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall in New York, complete with backing orchestra led by Mort Lindsey.
This concert appearance, on the night of Sunday April 23, 1961, has been called "the greatest night in show business history". Garland's live performances were big successes at the time and her record company wanted to capture that energy onto a recording. The double album became a hit, both critically and commercially. The album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making Garland the first woman to win the award.
Judy Garland's career had moved from movies in the 1940s, to vaudeville and elaborate stage shows in the 1950s. She also suffered from drug and alcohol abuse, and, by 1959, had become overweight and ill and needed extensive medical treatment. After a long convalescence, weight loss, and vocal rest, she returned in 1960 to the concert stage with a simple program of 'just Judy.' Garland's 1960-1961 tour of Europe and North America was a success, and her stage presence was highly regarded. Eventually Judy was billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer". Audiences were documented as leaving their seats and crowding around the stage to be closer to Garland, and often called her back for encore after encore, even asking her to repeat a song after her book of arrangements was completed.
On the evening of the Carnegie show, after a bombastic overture that built high emotion, Judy appeared looking remarkably healthy and well-groomed to a loud ovation from the star-studded audience. The standing ovation when she took the stage set the tone for the evening that followed. "They were on their feet even before the goddess grabbed the microphone," wrote reviewer Lewis Funke for the New York Times. Alan King told Garland biographer John Fricke, that composer Harold Arlen, in the seat next to King, confided that he was worried about Garland's physical condition, not having seen her since before her 1959 hospital stay. "Then she walked out," King said. "She was magnificent: svelte, beautifully dressed, perfectly made up. She sang "When You're Smiling" and when she got to the second chorus ... Arlen turned to me and said, 'I think we're in good shape tonight'". Judith Christ wrote for the New York Herald, "And then she sang. And she sang, let it be reported, as she hasn't in years."
The New York Times stated: "Indeed, what actually was to have been a concert – and was – also turned into something not too remote from a revival meeting." The recorded applause on the album is lengthy and loud and illustrates the energetic connection between Garland and her fans. Ann Miller once characterized Judy as having a "force field" around her onstage. Garland's audience at Carnegie Hall included theatre performers on their usual Sunday night off, and the celebrities appeared to be as enthusiastic as the rest of the audience. Even Judy's peers were "reaching out to touch Judy Garland" as Rex Reed would state years later. Among those who attended the show were Carol Channing, Lauren Bacall, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, Spencer Tracy, Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Leonard Bernstein, Anthony Perkins, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Phyllis Newman, Kay Medford, Jerry Herman and Terrence McNally. Photographs on the album cover show the audience, in evening dress, lining the stage reaching out to touch Garland's hand, as was indicative of a Garland performance. Lauren Bacall claimed to have seen composer Leonard Bernstein excitedly jumping up and down in his chair. In the biographical film, Beyond The Rainbow, Adolph Green stated emphatically, "That night, there seemed to be no end to her energy". Near the end of the concert, after Judy sang "Rock-a-bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody", the audience applauded raucously for almost 2 minutes, shouting requests for yet another song. Garland memorably called out, "I know, I'll sing 'em all and we'll stay all night!" to which the audience roared in thunderous approval.
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