Search - Judy Garland :: Best of the Decca Years 1: Hits

Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart !!!

Matthew G. Sherwin | last seen screaming at Amazon customer service | 04/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Best of the Decca Years, Vol. 1 is an unbelievably sweet Judy garland CD that gives us so many of her earlier hits when she was working at MGM Studios. Judy's voice was in excellent form; she sang like a talented chanteuse much older than she actually was; MGM initially put Judy on radio so people wouldn't see that such a young girl was singing--they'd never believe the maturity and prowess of little Judy's voice! The sound quality on this CD is very good; and the artwork gives us a very pretty picture of a young Judy Garland.



"Dear Mr. Gable/You Made Me Love You" is an excellent song to start of this track set; Judy sounds so strong and her voice stuns me with its beauty. I'll always be enchanted by my favorite singer's voice! "Dear Mr. Gable/You Made Me Love You" was originally performed in the movie Broadway Melody of 1938--but it's timeless to me.



"Over The Rainbow" is NOT the version from the movie soundtrack; this sounds like the version MGM released on Decca Records when the movie came out. Judy sings this with panache and again I'm in total awe! Why can't they ALL be like Judy? The answer is simple--Judy was singularly talented.



"Embraceable You" is a Gershwin tune from the movie Girl Crazy; and Judy sings this to perfection and beyond! She aces this effortlessly and her voice is rich, warm and very vibrant. Wonderful! "Our Love Affair" is another major highlight of this album; Judy handles this tune with grace and style; and this impresses me greatly. I love it!



"For Me And My Gal" comes from the MGM movie of the same name; and Judy sings this marvelously. Judy never sounded better; and it's no wonder why MGM had her under a long term contract. Similarly, "The Trolley Song" still sounds fresh and new whenever I hear Judy sing it; the MGM chorus enhances the natural beauty of the number--not that Judy needed it, mind you.



"Yah-Tah-Tah, Yah-Tah-Tah (Talk, Talk, Talk)" is a pretty cool duet Judy sings with the great Bing Crosby; they got along very well and this enhances their duet together. The CD also ends very nicely with Judy Garland performing "On The Atchison, Topeka, And The Santa Fe" from The Harvey Girls. The Harvey Girls wasn't exactly an early MGM hit for Judy; but it still fits in well on this first volume CD and the MGM chorus harmonizes very well, too.



There just will never be another Judy Garland. My grandmother was such a huge fan that when she listened to a Judy record album you weren't allowed to talk until "Judy had finished singing." I feel the same way. Ladies and Gentlemen--this CD gives to you--the incomparable Judy Garland.

"

The best of Judy's early years with Decca

Daniel Jolley | Shelby, North Carolina USA | 10/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Best of the Decca Years; Volume One holds a special place in my heart because it was the first (of many) Judy Garland CDs I bought. This collection makes for a great introduction to Judy's early career, as it contains 14 tracks she released on the Decca label between 1937 (when she was fifteen) and 1945. While her talent was obvious at the youngest of ages, you won't find any of the real show-stoppers or emotionally wringing ballads that she recorded in her later years; these are by and large fun and youthful numbers of the sort that opened up the doors of Hollywood to this girl with the voice of a grown woman. Dear Mr. Gable/You Made Me Love You, which Judy first sang for Clark Gable on his 36th birthday, found a place for Judy in Broadway Melody of 1938. A number of film roles followed, America took notice of the remarkable young singer/actress, she secured passage to the land of Oz, and the rest was history. Despite lying at one point on the cutting room floor, Over the Rainbow won the hearts of moviegoers, peaked at number five on the record charts, and became Judy's signature song for the rest of her career. Judy sang Zing Went the Strings of My Heart in Listen Darling, but Decca only recorded it for release after The Wizard of Oz made her a superstar. Embraceable You is a Cole Porter standard which Judy also recorded in 1939. I'm Nobody's Baby, a song Judy performed in her memorable role as Betsy Booth in Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, charted at number 3 in 1940, and she also teamed up with Johnny Mercer to record the unabashedly fun Friendship. Of course, child stars only remain children for so long, and the tender Our Love Affair from Strike Up the Band helps mark the transition of Judy the girl with the big voice to Judy the attractive young woman. How About You? from Babes in Broadway is pretty much a standard that Judy works wonders with. As Judy's movie career took off in the early 1940s, many a memorable Judy classic was recorded. Her duet with Gene Kelly in For Me and My Gal peaked on the charts at number three. Meet Me in St. Louis, my favorite Garland movie, provides three wonderful songs for this collection: the title song is infectiously catchy, her girl-next-door wistful version of The Boy Next Door won over many a youthful heart, and The Trolley Song became a classic that usually found its place in her concert performances of later years. After singing a number of songs with Bing Crosby on radio in the early 1940s, the pair released the song Yah-Ta-Ta, Yah-Ta-Ta (Talk, Talk, Talk) and surprised many by turning their fun give-and-take recording into a top five hit. This collection ends with Garland's most memorable song from the film The Harvey Girls: On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe; this song, with its wonderful blend of several styles and tempos, will give you plenty of energy with which to get up and set your CD player to play this CD again from the beginning. These 14 early Decca tracks are more than enough to satisfy any Judy Garland fan in and of themselves, but this CD also comes with impressive liner notes containing a short biography of Judy Garland (with particular emphasis on the Decca years, of course). This includes information about the recording of each of the 14 tracks collected here. While this is a great collection of early songs, though, I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone wanting to sample Judy's music for the first time, as her later concert performances are much more impressive. For the true Judy Garland fan, however, this collection of early tracks is a wish come true."