"Over the Rainbow" is a ballad, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Yip Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz and was sung by actress Judy Garland, in her starring role as Dorothy Gale. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became Garland's signature song, as well as one of the most enduring standards of the 20th century.
About five minutes into the film, Dorothy sings the song after failing to get Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and the farmhands to listen to her relate an unpleasant incident involving her dog, Toto, and the town spinster, Miss Gulch (Margaret Hamilton). Aunt Em tells her to "find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble". This prompts her to walk off by herself, musing to Toto, "Some place where there isn't any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat, or a train. It's far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain...", at which point she begins singing.
Video Over the Rainbow
Influence and legacy
The song is number one on the "Songs of the Century" list compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. The American Film Institute also ranked the song the greatest movie song of all time on the list of "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs".
The very first artist to record the song was actually big band singer Bea Wain, who at the time was a featured vocalist with the Larry Clinton Orchestra. MGM prohibited release of this version until The Wizard of Oz (1939) had opened and audiences heard Judy Garland perform it.
It was adopted (along with Irving Berlin's 1942 hit "White Christmas") by American troops in Europe in World War II, as a symbol of the United States.
In April 2005, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp recognizing lyricist Yip Harburg's accomplishments; it features the opening lyric from the song.
The song was used as an audio wakeup call in the STS-88 space shuttle mission in Flight Day 4, which was dedicated to astronaut Robert D. Cabana from his daughter, Sara.
The song was honored with the 2014 Towering Song Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame and was sung at its dinner on June 12, 2014, by Jackie Evancho.
In April 2016, The Daily Telegraph listed the song as number 8 on its list of the 100 greatest songs of all time.
In March 2017, Garland's original rendition of the song was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".
Maps Over the Rainbow
The Wizard of Oz
The song's sequence and the entirety of the Kansas scenes were directed by King Vidor, though he was not credited. The song was initially deleted from the film after a preview in San Luis Obispo, because MGM chief executive Louis B. Mayer and producer Mervyn LeRoy thought it "slowed down the picture" and that "the song sounds like something for Jeanette MacDonald, not for a little girl singing in a barnyard". However, the persistence of associate producer Arthur Freed and Garland's vocal coach/mentor Roger Edens to keep it in the film eventually paid off--it is for this sequence that the film is best known and remembered.
At the start of the film, part of the song is played by the MGM orchestra over the opening credits. A reprise of it was deleted after being filmed. An additional chorus was to be sung by Dorothy while she was locked in the Witch's castle, helplessly awaiting death as the hourglass ran out. However, although the visual portion of that reprise is presumably lost, the soundtrack of it survives and was included in the 2-CD Deluxe Edition of the film's soundtrack, released by Rhino Entertainment in 1995. In that extremely intense and fear-filled rendition, Dorothy cries her way through it, unable to finish, concluding with a tear-filled, "I'm frightened, Auntie Em, I'm frightened!" This phrase was retained in the film and is followed immediately by Aunt Em's brief appearance in the crystal ball, where she is soon replaced by the visage of the witch (Hamilton), mocking and taunting Dorothy before turning toward the camera to cackle. Another instrumental version is played in the underscore in the final scene, and over the closing credits.
Original Garland recordings
On October 7, 1938, Judy Garland first recorded the song on the MGM soundstages, using an arrangement by Murray Cutter.
In September 1939, a studio recording of the song, not from the actual film soundtrack, was recorded and released as a single by Decca Records.
In March 1940, that same recording was included on a Decca 78-RPM four-record studio cast album entitled The Wizard of Oz. Although this is not the version of the song featured in the film, Decca would continue to re-release the so-called "Cast Album" well into the 1960s after it was re-issued as a single-record 331/3 RPM LP.
It was not until 1956, when MGM released the true soundtrack album from the film, that the film version of the song was made available to the public. The 1956 soundtrack release was timed to coincide with the television premiere of the film. The soundtrack version has been re-released several times over the years, including in a "Deluxe Edition" from Rhino Records in 1995.
Following the film's release in 1939, the song became Garland's signature song and she would perform it for the next 30 years, until her death in 1969. She performed it without altering it, singing exactly as she did for the film. She explained her fidelity by saying that she was staying true to the character of Dorothy and to the message of really being somewhere over the rainbow.
In 2017, Garland's recorded rendition of the film was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".
Lyrics
An introductory verse ("When all the world is a hopeless jumble...") that was not used in the film is often used in theatrical productions of The Wizard of Oz and is included in the piano sheet music book of songs from the film. It was also used in renditions by Frank Sinatra, by Al Bowlly, by Doris Day on her album Hooray For Hollywood (1958) (Vol.1), by Tony Bennett on his albums Tony Bennett Sings a String of Harold Arlen (1961) and Here's to the Ladies (1995), by Ella Fitzgerald, by Sarah Vaughan, and by Norma Waterson, among others. Garland herself sang the introductory verse only once, on a 1948 radio broadcast of The Louella Parsons Show. Lyrics for a second verse ("Once by a word only lightly spoken...") appear in the British edition of the sheet music.
International artists
The first German version in the English language was recorded by the Swing Orchestra Heinz Wehner (1908-1945) in March 1940 in Berlin. Wehner, at this time an international well-known German Swing Artist, also took over the vocals. The first German version in German language was sung by Inge Brandenburg (1929-1999) in 1960.
Israel Kamakawiwo?ole version
Israel Kamakawiwo?ole's album Facing Future, released in 1993, included a ukulele medley of the song and Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". It reached number 12 on Billboard's Hot Digital Tracks chart the week of January 31, 2004 (for the survey week ending January 18, 2004). In the UK, it was released as a single under the title "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". It entered the UK Official Singles Chart in April 2007 at number 68. In Germany, the single also returned to the German Singles Chart in September 2010. After only 2 weeks on that chart, it had already received gold status for having sold 150,000 copies. In October 2010, it reached No. 1 in the German charts and 2011 it has been certified 5x Gold for selling more than 750,000 copies. It stayed 12 non-consecutive weeks at the top spot and was the most successful single in Germany in 2010. As of March 2012, it's the 2nd best-selling download ever in Germany with digital sales between 500,000 and 600,000. In France, it debuted at number 4 in December 2010 and reached number one. In the USA, it was certified Platinum for 1,000,000 downloads sold. To date it has sold over 4.2 million digital copies as of October 2014. In Switzerland, it received Platinum, too, for 30,000 copies sold.
This version of the song has been used in several commercials, films and television programs including Finding Forrester, Meet Joe Black, 50 First Dates, Son of the Mask, Snakes on a Plane, Charmed, South Pacific, Cold Case, ER, Life on Mars, Horizon, and Scrubs. The Kamakawiwo?ole version of the song was covered by the cast of Glee on the season one finale, "Journey," and included on the extended play Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals, charting at number 30 in the UK, 31 in Canada and Ireland, 42 in Australia, and 43 in the US. Cliff Richard recorded his own version of the medley based on this one with a medley of "Over the Rainbow/What A Wonderful World" released as a single from the album Wanted, which charted in the UK in 2001 and Aselin Debison recorded the medley for her 2002 album Sweet is the Melody.
This version of the song was recorded in 1988, in Honolulu, in just one take. Israel called the recording studio at 3 am. He was given 15 minutes to arrive by Milan Bertosa. Bertosa is quoted as saying ?And in walks the largest human being I had seen in my life. Israel was probably like 500 pounds. And the first thing at hand is to find something for him to sit on." The building security found Israel a large steel chair. "Then I put up some microphones, do a quick sound check, roll tape, and the first thing he does is 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.' He played and sang, one take, and it was over."
Eva Cassidy version
Eva Cassidy recorded a version of the song for the 1992 Chuck Brown/Eva Cassidy album The Other Side. After her death in 1996, it was included in her posthumously-released compilation album Songbird, released in 1998 and was released as a CD single in 2001. It was popularized by the BBC on BBC Radio 2 and on the television show Top of the Pops 2; the latter featured a video recording of Cassidy performing it.
When released as a single, "Over the Rainbow" debuted at number 88 on the UK Singles Chart in February 2001 and climbed to number 42 in May, becoming Cassidy's first single to chart in the United Kingdom. In Scotland, the cover was slightly more successful, reaching number 36 and giving Cassidy her first top 40 hit in that region. The publicity of the song helped push sales of the compilation album Songbird to number one on the UK Albums Chart in March 2001.
Cassidy's recording was selected by the BBC for their Songs of the Century album in 1999. Her performance of it at Blues Alley was published for the first time in January 2011 on her Simply Eva album.
Track listings
CD single
- "Over the Rainbow"
- "Dark End of the Street"
Charts
Danielle Hope version
Danielle Hope, the winner of the Wizard of Oz-themed BBC talent show Over the Rainbow, released a cover version of the song. It was released by digital download on May 23, 2010 and a CD single was released May 31, 2010. As it was recorded before a winner was announced, runners-up Lauren Samuels and Sophie Evans also recorded versions of it. These were both later made available for download on June 6, 2010. All three finalists appeared on the CD single's B-side: a Wizard of Oz medley.
The single was a charity record, raising money for both the BBC Performing Arts Fund and Prostate UK.
Track listings
- UK digital download
- "Over the Rainbow" - 2:58
- CD single
- "Over the Rainbow"
- "The Wizard of Oz medley" - Sophie Evans, Danielle Hope and Lauren Samuels
Chart performance
Ariana Grande version
American singer Ariana Grande released the song on June 6, 2017 as a single to raise money as part of her benefit concert One Love Manchester, after 22 people were killed in the Manchester Arena bombing at Grande's concert on May 22, 2017.
Grande performed the single for the first time on TV at the One Love Manchester concert on June 4, 2017. Beginning on June 7, the singer added the song to her Dangerous Woman Tour setlist for the remainder of that tour.
Chart performance
Other versions
On albums and singles
- Glenn Miller (1939)
- Boyd Raeburn (1946)
- Bud Powell (1951)
- Dave Brubeck, Jazz at Storyville (1952)
- Art Tatum, The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces Volume 6 (1953)
- Ray Charles, Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul (1963)
- Stanley Jordan, Stolen Moments (1990)
- Keith Jarrett, La Scala (1995)
- Katharine McPhee (2006)
- Jewel, Lullaby (2009)
- Jeff Beck recorded a version on his album Emotion & Commotion (2010).
- The Demensions recorded a version that reached No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960.
- Nicholas David, a contestant on the third season of The Voice, recorded a version that went to No. 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2012 with sales of 48,000 copies.
- Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs's version topped the Australian music charts in 1965. Another version charted in 1974 after Thorpe's blues-based revival of the song at the 1973 Sunbury Pop Festival.
- Cosmic Gate released a trance cover called "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that reached No. 29 on the Gfk Entertainment Charts and No. 82 in the Swiss Singles Charts
On film and television
- In the film Third Finger, Left Hand (1940) with Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas the tune is played throughout the film in short sequences.
- In the film The Philadelphia Story (1940), James Stewart sings the song while carrying Katharine Hepburn.
- The tune appeared throughout the film I Wake Up Screaming (1941) starring Betty Grable and Victor Mature.
- The song can be heard in an ironic context in the Vincent Price horror film Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972).
- Sam Harris's version appeared in an episode of Beavis and Butt-head.
- In 1995, Jewel played Dorothy Gale in the television concert special The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True.
- Olivia Newton-John's version was used in the 1997 movie Face/Off.
- Nora Ephron used two versions of the song in two movies she directed: Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You've Got Mail (1998). The songs were sung by Ray Charles and Harry Nilsson, but only Nilsson's is included on a soundtrack.
- Mariah Carey sang the song in a medley to her godmother, Patti Labelle, during the Essence Awards in 1998.
- Jane Monheit's version is used over the end credits of the film "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" (2004).
- A version of the song was appeared in an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
- The song appeared at the end of the Scrubs episode "My Way Home".
- The song appears in the second episode of Salad Fingers, sung by the character of the same name.
- Beyoncé sang this song at the Live Movies Rocks in 2007.
- This song inspired the soundtrack of the short Lava (Pixar, 2014) that was theatrically released alongside Pixar's Inside Out in 2015.
- Nick Jonas sang it in the TV movie Elvis, based on Elvis Presley and his illegalmate children. The film premiered on June 29, 2018 on TNT.
See also
- Musical selections in The Wizard of Oz
- List of 1930s jazz standards
- List of best-selling singles
- List of best-selling singles in the United States
References
External links
- The Judy Garland Online Discography
- Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Source of article : Wikipedia
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