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This is the first time that Australian-born Judith Durham’s ‘Gift Of Song’ vinyl album has ever been released on CD, and fully remastered.

It is truly a precious gift for all her fans who have waited so long for the opportunity to hear these rare recordings at their pristine best. Judith has now achieved legendary status since her first signing with A&M Records to record this album in Hollywood in 1969.  She was again venturing into the world as a solo recording artist having achieved superstardom as lead singer with global chart-toppers The Seekers.  The group’s hits, like “Georgy Girl” (Oscar-nominated) and “I’ll Never Find Another You” (4 million hits on youtube to date!) have allowed the world to appreciate Judith’s golden voice through the years since the Sixties, oftentimes with enviable comparisons to America’s icons Judy Collins, Karen Carpenter and even voices in the classical world, like Jessye Norman.  But Judith stands alone with her timeless, innocent, bell-like, angelic vocal quality.

The songs Judith chose for ‘Gift Of Song’ were sourced from writers in England and America and the meaningful and heartfelt subject matter gives a hint of the direction her developing solo career would take later, now spanning every genre, even as a songwriter herself. 

Back in 1969 however, just before Judith married the love of her life Ron Edgeworth, she had not become the fully-fledged versatile composer she now is.  And it is a magic moment when the album culminates with the moving song “Here Am I”, composed by Judith’s former “Colours Of My Life” collaborator David Reilly, which poignantly features Ron’s solo piano accompaniment to carry a lyric that symbolically foretells the future in decades to come.

This album, with its cover depicting Judith on the brink of marriage, is a pivotal moment in time captured in this remastered 30ips recording of a voice which has defied adequate description since it was first heard all over the world.

The magnificence of the lushly-orchestrated “The Light Is Dark Enough” was selected by Universal Music to represent the ‘Gift Of Song’ album for inclusion on Judith’s 50^th Anniversary Retrospective album ‘Colours Of My Life’ released for Christmas 2011.

“A beautifully sung set of 11 songs by the clear-voiced Judith Durham … I liked best her sensitive singing of David Reilly’s ‘I Can Say’ and Patti Ingals’ ‘Gift Of Song’ …” New Musical Express, UK

”Eleven tracks of sweetness take a reminiscent turn, with the inclusion of a rousing spiritual-type number, ‘I Wish I Knew’ … appealing in a sad way is a peace lullaby, ‘There’s A Baby’ and a bitter-sweet ballad by Harry Nilsson, ‘Wailing Of The Willow’ has the earmarks of a stayer … chances are that delightful Durham will still be singing as though she’s never been kissed, in the year 2001.”  The Age, Melbourne Australia.