NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ DRG Records) - DRG Records proudly announces the CD debut of the very first professionally-preserved
Judy Garland concert recording - her first official and legitimate "live" album, GARLAND AT THE GROVE.
Every song Judy sang that night is being presented for the first time ever on one release, as the original LP deleted three songs. Those missing songs and all of the others have now been Digitally Remixed, Remastered and Restored in glorious 24-bit stereo sound here, from the original 3-track tapes made on that historic night.
This CD release marks the 50th Anniversary of the year the album was recorded, 1958. GARLAND AT THE GROVE was recorded on the closing night of Judy's July 23rd-August 5th, 1958, 2-week engagement at the famed Cocoanut Grove, in Los Angeles, CA. Her label, Capitol Records, dispatched its remote recorders to capture Garland's performance using the then-new multitrack stereo sound. Yet it has taken nearly 50 years for the world to finally hear her entire nightclub act - From the time Judy makes her entrance, to the post-performance announcement that the evening was recorded for an album, every second of tape is included here: All 13 songs are at last on this one CD.
The songs range from the old (Judy's movie masterpieces "The Trolley Song," "You Made Me Love You," "After You've Gone," and "Over The Rainbow") to newer songs she'd just cut for Capitol ("Day In, Day Out," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," and "Do It Again"), to songs that had either recently become concert stables or would be repeated on her later TV series ("Rock-a-bye Your Baby," and a sizzling "When The Sun Comes Out"). Another highlight is the star's take on the newest song in the lineup, the smash novelty song "The Purple People Eater." Judy is backed on GARLAND AT THE GROVE by the bright, swinging orchestra conducted by the Cocoanut Grove's resident musical director, Freddie Martin.
Using Algorithmix EQ and restoration tools, Alan Silverman of Arf! Digital brought the sound back to life, and restored spectral imbalances in the original recording. The CD's producer Scott Schechter says this digital debut of GARLAND AT THE GROVE thus "presents the extra richness and fullness heard at the Cocoanut Grove that night, but not quite preserved on the original LP. Listening to this CD, you'll feel like you're at a glamorous 1950s nightclub, right in the audience, sitting at the best table at the Grove." Along with the sparkling sound, GARLAND AT THE GROVE features the original album artwork, and new detailed liner notes by Schechter, preeminent Garland-Minnelli historian, and author of "Judy Garland: The Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Legend," and "The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook."
TRACK LISTING:
1. Garland Overture
2. When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)
3. Day In, Day Out
4. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
5. Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart
6. Purple People Eater
7. Medley: You Made Me Love You / For Me and My Gal / The Trolley Song
8. Do It Again
9. When the Sun Comes Out
10. Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody
11. Over The Rainbow
12. After You've Gone
13. A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow
14. Swanee
