This holiday season, Judy Garland is being celebrated with a trio of remastered re-releases of her most famous recordings on vinyl.
One of the three albums re-released, 1965's "Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli: Live at the London Palladium," received something a little extra special to mark its 50th anniversary, liner notes penned by none other than Liza Minnelli herself.
In the text, Minnelli, 69, reveals that her mother, who died in 1969 at age 47, "tricked" her into doing the now-legendary 1964 performance captured on the album, which was first released a year later.
"She asked me to come perform in London with her, but I declined," she writes. "I felt I wasn't ready, I was too young."
Fortunately for the world, Garland "didn't take no for an answer," and once Minnelli spotted an advertisement for the concert, she "knew there was no turning back."
"Listen, Mama owned whatever stage she was on. So we did it, and it was great and exhilarating and terrifying," Minnelli recalls. Still, the scope of Minnelli's talent surprised even Garland, who wasn't about to be upstaged by an ingenue, even if there was a familial connection: "She always gave, never took. But something slightly competitive came out that night, an energy I hadn't seen before."
Ultimately, the performance paid off in spades for Minnelli, too. "After working with her, I was never nervous about appearing with anyone again. I had already appeared with the best," she writes. "It's part of history I guess, though I don't think of myself like that. I suppose, for me, it's a personal history."
The remastered "Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli: Live at the London Palladium" is being released on vinyl in a 2-LP set alongside 1961's "Judy at Carnegie Hall" and 1955's "Miss Show Business." In the meantime, you can have a listen to the pair joining forces on "Smile" below.
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