Judy at Carnegie Hall

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Judy at Carnegie Hall
Live album by Judy Garland
Released July 10, 1961 (1961-07-10)
Recorded April 23, 1961, at Carnegie Hall
Genre Jazz vocal
Length 122:51
Label Capitol
Judy Garland chronology
The Magic of Judy Garland (1961) Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961) Gay Purr-Ee (1962)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4.5/5 stars[1]

Judy at Carnegie Hall is a two-record live recording of a concert by Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall in New York.

This concert appearance, on the night of April 23, 1961, has been called "the greatest night in show business history".[2] 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.

Judy Garland's career had moved from movies in the 1940s, to elaborate vaudeville stage shows in the 1950s. During this period, she broke many box office records, making her concert appearances events unto themselves. She also suffered from extreme drug and alcohol abuse, and had become overweight, and very ill, by 1959. After a long convalescence, weight loss, and vocal rest, she returned 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 she was billed as 'The World's Greatest Entertainer'. Garland's concert mania was on the rise when she visited Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, and many reviews of her shows commented on her showmanship, vocal maturity, and the emotional effects that her performances delivered. 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 very loud ovation from the star-studded audience. The recorded applause proves the energetic connection between Garland and her fans. Her audience that night included theatre performers on their usual Sunday night off, and the celebrities were as wild with adoration towards Garland as the rest of the audience. Photographs on the liner notes show the audience, in evening dress, lining the stage as was indicative of a Garland performance. Hedda Hopper (who was in attendance), reviewed Garland's ability to embrace her concert audience by saying of the show, "..I never saw the likes of it in my life." All reviews of the show gave Garland high marks, and commented on her healthy appearance, exuberance, energy, vocal power, and the uplifting emotional power that Garland has on her audience. By all accounts, the evening's performance was a resounding success, even if it had not been recorded. The release of Garland's record set, only two months after the concert, cemented her comeback from illness, and brought her a new public acclaim.

The double album was a huge best seller—charting for 73 weeks on the Billboard chart, including 13 weeks at number one, and being certified gold. It won four Grammy Awards, for Album of the Year (The first live album and the first album by a female performer to win the award.), Best Female Vocal Performance, Best Engineered Album, and Best Album Cover.[3] The album has never been out of print.


Track listing[edit]

Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Overture":
a) "The Trolley Song"
b) "Over the Rainbow"
c) "The Man That Got Away"  

a) Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin
b) Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg
c) Harold Arlen, Ira Gershwin
2. "When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)"   Mark Fisher, Joe Goodwin, Larry Shay 3:29
3. "Medley":
a) "Almost Like Being in Love"
b)"This Can't Be Love"  

a) Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe
b) Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart
4. "Do It Again"   George Gershwin, Buddy DeSylva 6:16
5. "You Go to My Head"   J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie 2:43
6. "Alone Together"   Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz 5:38
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Who Cares (As Long as You Care for Me)"   George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin 1:46
2. "Puttin' On the Ritz"   Irving Berlin 2:45
3. "How Long Has This Been Going On?"   George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin 4:12
4. "Just You, Just Me"   Jesse Greer, Raymond Klages 2:16
5. "The Man That Got Away"   Harold Arlen, Ira Gershwin 5:03
6. "San Francisco"   Walter Jurmann, Gus Kahn, Bronislaw Kaper 4:45
7. "I Can't Give You Anything But Love"   Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh 6:46
8. "That's Entertainment!"   Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz 6:38
Side three
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Come Rain or Come Shine"   Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer 7:23
2. "You're Nearer"   Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart 2:33
3. "A Foggy Day"   George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin 3:04
4. "If Love Were All"   Noël Coward 2:53
5. "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart"   James F. Hanley 4:04
6. "Stormy Weather"   Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler 6:11
Side four
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Medley":
a) "You Made Me Love You"
b) "For Me and My Gal"
c) "The Trolley Song"  

a) Joseph McCarthy, James V. Monaco, Roger Edens
b) George W. Meyer, Edgar Leslie, E. Ray Goetz
c) Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane
2. "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody"   Sam M. Lewis, Jean Schwartz, Joe Young 5:22
3. "Over the Rainbow"   Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg 5:47
4. "Swanee"   Irving Caesar, George Gershwin 7:31
5. "After You've Gone"   Henry Creamer, Turner Layton 4:20
6. "Chicago"   Fred Fisher 5:15

Chart positions[edit]

Year Chart Position
1961 Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200) (mono and stereo) 1[citation needed]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ Me and My Shadows: Life With Judy Garland (2001)
  3. ^ "Grammy Award Winners – Judy at Carnegie Hall". The Recording Academy. Retrieved 2008-11-29. 

External links[edit]

Preceded by
Something for Everybody by Elvis Presley
Billboard 200 number-one album (mono)
September 11 – December 10, 1962
Succeeded by
Blue Hawaii (soundtrack) by Elvis Presley
Preceded by
Stars of a Summer Night by Various artists
Billboard 200 number-one album (stereo)
September 11 – November 12, 1962
Succeeded by
Stereo 35/MM by Enoch Light & the Light Brigade