Recording artists never die—they’re eulogized and anthologized, then anthologized again (and again and again). Repackaged and reissued for eternity, well-known and unreleased works are sold to a public anxious for whatever clues might be uncovered from a favorite star’s past masters. Demos, unfinished snippets, studio chatter, and other ephemera is gathered for eager fans left wanting only more.

Count me among them. Announce a boxed set, the deluxe edition, an expanded album in both mono and stereo, and my wallet and web browser open freely. If an all-new package touts better-sounding sides or collects an artist’s multi-label history on a single-disc, I’m your guy.

But it’s one thing to raid the vault to right Roy Orbison’s legacy, yet another to witness Celine Dion sharing a stage with a resurrected Elvis. Now live-after-death appearances, no matter how awkward for all, can go on and on. (Idol giveth back by snatching one’s soul from the great beyond.) Thanks, technology, for creeping us out!

It’s all Natalie Cole’s fault. Thanks to “Unforgettable,” her 1991 duet with her decades-dead dad, Nat King Cole, she received career-best notices (and several Grammys). Revolutionary, sure (at the time), but she robbed that grave twice more, with further re-duos “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)” and “When I Fall In Love.” Should progeny be limited to be allowed just one pater-pass?

A single bid wouldn’t automatically mean a match made in aural heaven, of course. Lisa Marie Presley, the King’s princess, was late to the party, entering her father’s “In The Ghetto” only last year. Forget another hungry mouth; that posthumous pairing was one more thing we didn’t need.

Now it’s Judy’s turn to cry.

The all-new Judy Garland in Concert is not a DVD release of some found footage. It’s an 2008 concert event being presented June 28-29 with the backing of Judy’s son, Joe Luft. The performance is being billed as “Judy’s debut with the Boston Pops and her return to the Boston concert stage after more than 40 years.” What?!

Know what’s worse than singing along to a tape of your dearly-departed parent? Promoting mom as if she’s living in the present tense!

Buried within the press release for this “amazing, one-of-a-kind experience” is this choice quote from the show’s creative supervisor, John Fricke: “Judy’s concerts gave audiences a remarkable sense of being alive.” A little too ironic, yeah, I really do think.

In sum: Back catalog, yes! Back-from-the-dead, not so much.

That’s not to say a current artist can’t crib from the past. Just be super-creative when you do it, like Rufus Wainright.