ABOUT
THE DISC & RECORDINGS:
Unfortunately throughout her entire recording
career, Judy Garland never made a Christmas album. The two
songs included here, her appearance in the 1937 MGM short Silent
Night singing the title song, plus a few songs she sang
on radio and television, are the only
Garland
Holiday
songs
in
existence.
Which is odd, as supposedly she loved the Holiday Season. Plus
her voice lends itself perfectly to the
many
beautiful and heartfelt Holiday songs out there.
This album is the only time that Judy shares billing
on record with her former rival at MGM, Deanna Durbin. That
is until the 1936 short subject Every Sunday began
to appear on bootleg records in the 1960s and 70s. Both girls
were just
starting out at MGM in 1936 when
they made the film. Shortly afterwards,
Deanna's
MGM contract was allowed to lapse (meaning that the studio
did not take advantage of the contract option to renew). Deanna
left MGM for Universal where later that same year she became
a big hit in her first film One Hundred Men And A Girl.
This eventually helped Judy's career, as MGM eventually began
to
take notice of Judy's talents and the fact that there really
was room in their roster of stars (and what a roster it was!)
for a young teen star.
The rest of this album could be called the "Kenny Baker
Christmas Album" as Kenny gets four of his songs included.
This album was released the same year that he was filming
The Harvey Girls with Judy at MGM. He also participated
in the making of the Harvey
Girls Decca Cast Album.
Judy's songs are included in the
1994 CD boxed set "Judy
Garland - The Complete Decca Masters (plus)."
All images on this page from the collection of Eric Hemphill, including the
rare insert - cover shown above right, lyrics to "The Birthday Of A King" from
inside the insert shown below.
Detailed information about the non-Garland songs provided by Bernie.
Thanks Bernie!
Click on image for larger version
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The very rare 1950 45rpm set version. |
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