After appearing in Vaudeville theater with her sisters, Judy was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney, and the film with which she would be most identified, "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). After 15 years, Judy was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a critically acclaimed Carnegie Hall concert, a well-regarded but short-lived television series, and a return to film acting beginning with "A Star Is Born" (1954).
Despite her professional triumphs, Judy battled personal problems throughout her life. Insecure about her appearance, her feelings were compounded by film executives who told her she was unattractive and overweight. Plied with drugs to control her weight and increase her productivity, Garland endured a decades-long struggle with addiction. Garland was plagued by financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes, and her first four of five marriages ended in divorce. She attempted suicide on a number of occasions. Garland died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 47, leaving children Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft, and Joey Luft.
Legacy
Judy Garland's legacy as a performer and a personality has endured long after her death. The American Film Institute named Garland eighth among the "Greatest Female Stars of All Time". She has been the subject of over two dozen biographies since her death, including the well-received "Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir" by her daughter, Lorna Luft. Luft's memoir was later adapted into the multiple award-winning television mini-series, "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows", which won Emmy Awards for two actresses portraying Garland (Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis).
Garland was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. These include "Over the Rainbow," which was ranked as the number one movie song of all time in the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Songs" list. Four more Garland songs are featured on the list: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (#76), "Get Happy" (#61), "The Trolley Song" (#26), and "The Man That Got Away" (#11).
Judy Garland has twice been honored on U.S. postage stamps, in 1989 (as Dorothy) and again in 2006 (as Vicki Lester from A Star Is Born).
Swanee
Judy Garland Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I never thought I'd miss you so
Somehow I feel your love is real
Near you I long to be
The birds are singing, it is song time
The banjos strummin' soft and low
I know that you
Swanee, you're calling me
Swanee
How I love you, how I love you
My dear old Swanee!
I'd give the world to be among the folks in
D-I-X-I
Even now my mammy's waiting for me
Praying for me, down by the Swanee
The folks up north will see me no more
When I go to the Swanee shore!
Swanee! Swanee!
I'm coming back to Swanee
Mammy, mammy
I love the old folks at home!
Swanee!
How I love you, how I love you
My dear old Swanee!
I'd give the world to be among the folks in
D-I-X-I
Even now my mammy's waiting for me
Praying for me, down by the Swanee
The folks up north will see me no more
When I go to the Swanee shore!
The song Swanee by Judy Garland is a beautiful expression of the love of someone who has been away from their loved one for a long time. The singer never thought that they would miss their loved one so much and feels that their love is real. The setting of the song is in the South, where the birds are singing, and the banjos are strumming, and the singer longs to be near their love. The chorus of the song repeats the name Swanee, which is a reference to the Suwannee River in southern Georgia, and the singer expresses their love for and desire to return to Dixie.
The lyrics of this song, written by Irving Caesar and George Gershwin, evoke a sense of longing and nostalgia for a place and time that the singer once knew and loved. There is a sense of joy and excitement in the singer's voice as they sing of the birds singing and the banjos strumming, but there is also a hint of sadness and wistfulness in their tone. As the chorus repeats, the singer expresses their longing to be back with their loved one and among the folks in Dixie.
Overall, Swanee is a beautiful song that expresses the timeless feelings of love, longing, and nostalgia that we all experience at one time or another. The use of the Suwannee River as a symbol of love and longing for Dixie adds to the evocative power of the song.
Line by Line Meaning
I've been away from you a long time
I have spent quite some time away from you
I never thought I'd miss you so
I never expected to yearn for you so much
Somehow I feel your love is real
I cannot explain how, but I perceive your love to be genuine
Near you I long to be
I crave to be close to you
The birds are singing, it is song time
It is time for birds to sing their beautiful melodies
The banjos strummin' soft and low
The instrument is being played with gentle and soothing sounds
I know that you
I am aware that
Yearn for me too
You also long for my presence
Swanee, you're calling me
Swanee, your love draws me toward you
Swanee
How I love you, how I love you
My dear old Swanee!
Swanee, you hold a special place in my heart and I cherish you dearly
I'd give the world to be among the folks in
D-I-X-I
I am willing to make any sacrifice to be with the people in the south
Even now my mammy's waiting for me
Praying for me, down by the Swanee
My mother is hopeful and actively seeking for my return at the shore
The folks up north will see me no more
When I go to the Swanee shore!
I am heading to the south with no plans to return to the north
Swanee! Swanee!
I'm coming back to Swanee
Mammy, mammy
I love the old folks at home!
Swanee, here I come! I am eager to be with my family and old acquaintances in the south
Lyrics © Kanjian Music, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: George Gershwin, Irving Caesar
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
ﱣ
Swanee, how I love ya how I love ya
My dear old Swanee
I'd give the world to be
Among the folks in
D-I-X-I-Even now my
Mammy's waitin' for me, prayin' for me
Down by the Swanee
The folks up North will see me no more
When I get to the Swanee shore
Swanee, Swanee
I'm coming back to Swanee
Mammy, Mammy
I love the old folks at home
I love ya
Swanee, how I love ya how I love ya
My dear old swanee
I'd give the world if I could only be sitting on my Mammy's knee
I love the old folks, I love the young folks
Oh my honey lamb, you'll love 'em all in Alabamy
Mammy, Mammy my dear old Mammy
your wanderin' child will wander no more
When I get to that Swanee Shore!
Pedro Cabral
Swanee !
How I love you, how I love !
My dear ol' Swanee
I'd give the world to be
Among the folks in
D-I-X-I-E-ven no[w]My mammy's
Waiting for me
Praying for me
Down by the Swanee
The folks up north will see me no more
When I go to the Swanee Shore !
Swanee !
How I love you, how I love !
My dear ol' Swanee
I'd give the world to be
Among the folks in
D-I-X-I-E-ven no[w]My mammy's
Waiting for me
Praying for me
Down by the Swanee
The folks up north will see me no more
When I go to the Swanee Shore !
Swanee, Swanee, I am coming back to Swanee !
Mammy, Mammy, I love the old folks at home !
Swanee !
How I love you, how I love !
My dear ol' Swanee
I'd give the world to be
Among the folks in
D-I-X-I-E-ven no[w]My mammy's
Waiting for me
Praying for me
Down by the Swanee
The folks up north will see me no more
When I go to the Swanee Shore !
JG Guitar Covers
The choreography in these old musicals can never be replicated.
Nicholas Ashton
Complete genius. There has NEVER been a performer more magical.
Long Gray Line
Joyce Little
I have three female Julliard School graduates who majored in voice, piano, and violin in my immediate family and they have never showered anyone with praise like they do Judy Garland. She mesmerized them and they go on about her talent as though she fell from Heaven. When you have high-level performers worshipping someone like that, you know there is something one-of-a-kind in her. She very well may have been an angel sent to grace us...I wish she had been nurtured instead of knocked down. She had that something that I have never seen before on a stage.
Nicholas Ashton
@Long Gray Line Thank you so much for your comment, which obviously comes from a wealth of professional experience. It is SO heartening to hear that students of the calibre of your own relatives share my own view (and more importantly, that of so many of the commentators) in responding to this specific performance and more generally. Judy Garland's gifts as a performer are those that come around once in a century, and we were/are all so very lucky to have had our own lives brightened and enriched by her work, and by her tragically brief time among us.
patrick ryan
@Long Gray Line Nurtured, not knocked down -- applies to so many of the greats sent from Heaven above (Remember Christ?)
Joejoe Brian
I was gonna post a comment. But yours summed up my sentiments beautifully. IMO she is the greatest entertainer of the last 100 years.
Montana Banana
Her voice is so damn powerful! We'll never have someone like her again. She truly shaped the future of popular music at the time
Yvonne Plant
It's her perfect intonation. Perfectly on key. There will never ever be anyone like her again. And the Born in Trunk sequence is still fantastic after so many years.
Stephanie Stanley
@Yvonne Plant Yvonne it was and is a phenomenal performance.
Myles Garcia
Actually, Streisand is a more IMPRESSIVE singer to me than Garland ever was.