About twice a year London has nights that are too hot for me to sleep comfortably. It's rather strange for someone who is born and bred in Lisbon, where I have experienced around 30º at night in heatwaves, but I do hate this side of summer. If on top of that I have gone to bed late in the previous nights, I really can't sleep. Tonight is one of this nights... oh well...
So here am I, listening to Judy Garland MGM recordings and writing. Just heard her version of "Anything you can do". I think it's one of her best songs, full of energy and comedy, and makes me very sorry that the film ("Annie get your gun") was never made with her - and I think this is part of the reason why I haven't seen it yet. At least the recording survives, and it's quite high on my iPod's most played...
When I was a kid/pre-teen, I remember recording her songs with a tape recorder from my VHS versions (recorded from TV) of her most famous musicals. I had stumbled into one of her film completely by accident due to a review in the portuguese newspaper "Público". This was when portuguese TV still showed old films on a regular basis... I have to say I was completely unaware of all the symbolism she carries - to me she has always been part of my love of films. Recently I decided to invest in the Rhino editions of my favourites, as well as one of their "best of" and be slightly nostalgic. This is how I became acquainted with the "Annie get your gun" recordings.
My top five of her MGM recordings would definitively have to include this, "Get Happy", "Mr Monotony", "The boy next door" and cheating slightly "The man that got away" (it's a WB film, not MGM, and I prefer the version from the Carnegie Hall concert).
Plus, "The Pirate" DVD should be arriving from amazon soon...
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