I freely admit to being a little old school about my entertainments: I was raised on movie musicals, Broadway shows and the Great American Songbook. Although I love pop music and today's latest hits... the eclectic nature of my tastes brings me back to the classics, all the time. But at the same time, I'm not really a full-on Show Queen; J's brother... shall we call him F in Balto... is the real deal. Next to him, I'm just an interested bystander.
In the course of thinking about some new critical writing I wound up searching out the old "French Mystique" number from the end of Blazing Saddles.... that, in turn, led me to a You Tube search of Madeline Kahn, which led me to Madeline performing "Getting Married Today" from a Sondheim Tribute Concert. That led me to Carol Burnett performing the same song in Putting It Together (which I saw, on Broadway), which led me to another version of the song I liked best that Carol did, "Could I Leave You" (can't find Carol's version, but here's Dee Hoty):
In the meantime I found this sketch of Carol Burnett and Robin Williams which I think is from one of Carol's shows on CBS. I've never seen them work together, and it's just... well, you have to see it, because Carol's a consummate comic actress... and Robin Williams is crazy:
In any case, all of this led me to trip over a strng of Judy Garland performances... so, just to pass along something I love, here is Judy doing Just In Time from Live at The London Palladium. Judy did a number of different arrangements of Just In Time, but for my money, this one, which was the one she was doing towards the end of her life, is the one that just sends shivers up my spine... mostly because the urgency of finding someone... just in time... really hits home the way she sings it:
And, just for shits and giggles... here's the French Mystique:
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