Posted by: James St. James contact

Rachel and Kurt VS Judy and Barbra

It's heresy to compare them of course. I mean, I thought Rachel and Kurt's rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again"/"Get Happy" was beautifully done, but it only serves to underscore how magical and triumphant the original was. For those of you who have never seen this 1963 clip from The Judy Garland Show, a little back story: Judy, of course, was on her last legs. It was near the end. Basically, the whole premise of the show was that it was one last victory lap for a dying show pony. Guest after guest was trotted out each week to pay their respects to one of the all-time greats. This time, Judy brought on a young, up-and-coming singer named Barbra Streisand who'd just had her first success on Broadway. They sang a few songs and then at the end of the show, they do this number. Judy, you can see, is struggling to keep up as Barbra basically runs circles around her. But Judy rallies, as she always does, and ends up giving one of her signature powerhouse performances. And for all of Barbra's thundering stamina and vocal gymnastics, it's Judy who is most effective, Judy who is the emotional core of the song. In hindsight we KNOW that happy days were NOT, in fact, here again for her, and she would never be able to just "forget her troubles" and "get happy." And even though Judy was effectively passing the torch to the next generation in this song, you can't help but think that Barbra isn't quite gracious enough. She seems too competitive, too eager to beat the old woman down, and show who's boss. There's so much subtext happening here, that it threatens to overwhelm the performance. But it doesn't. Watch it over and over again, and show it to all the youngsters who will otherwise only know the Kurt and Rachel version. 



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