JUDY GARLAND & MORT LINDSEY The Last Hurrah 12/68 (Please read the description below)

In November, 1968 John Meyer introduced Judy Garland to a song he wrote called I'd Like To Hate Myself In The Morning (and raise a little hell tonight). Judy fell in love with the song and wanted to include it in her upcoming residency at London's Talk Of The Town night club because she always felt it was important to add at least two new songs to her act for every new engagement. Luckily for Judy her friend and former musical director, Mort Lindsey, was now maestro for Merv Griffin. As Judy was booked for Merv's show in December she sent the song to Mort to write an orchestration for it so she could perform it on the show and then bring a new song with a sparkling arrangement to London with her. When Judy arrived in NYC from Boston for the show she went to the Americana hotel where the Griffin show's producer, Bob Shanks, had booked a suite for her. Unfortunately for Judy her reputation proceeded her and the night manager at the hotel refused to let her check in. This caused a lot of stress and embarrassment for Judy and she laid the blame on Shanks, and for some reason decided it also meant she was dropped from the show. She wasn't. However, Judy still wanted the chart for her new song so she called Shanks. What you are going to hear on this recording is Judy's first run through of the song with it's composer, John Meyer, Judy's somewhat passive aggressive phone call with the beleaguered Shanks, as well as her phone conversation with a confused Mort Lindsey who ended up sorting the whole mess out and got Judy and the show back in sync with each other. Then you will hear the premiere performance of Judy singing Mort's chart of I'd Like To Hate Myself In The Morning on the Merv Griffin show, as well as a discussion between Judy, Mort, and Merv about Mort's butcher who always had a new song for "Julie".