Somewhere over the Rainbow, from The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me.Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why then, oh why can’t I?If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can’t I?
How can you not love it? It’s only one of the greatest songs ever written in one of the greatest movies ever made? What more do you want?
Judy Garland looks like a very young girl in this movie, but she was a quite mature 16 year old girl when she shot the film. She sure is adorable, an immaculate example of that finest of all of God’s creations, the teenage girl.
This is a happy song, but it’s also sad. Sort of like life.
Sad because Judy later claimed to have been forced into various sex acts with Hollywood higher-ups during the shoot. So this was going on when she was recording this very song. When you think about that and listen to the song, it makes its dreams of escape all the more painful.
Sad because Judy Garland led such a sad life of heavy drinking and drug use, suicide attempts, mental hospitalizations, bitter divorces, and she finally stared into the abyss, took a handful of Seconals, and flung herself into the darkness, dead of a drug overdose.
Sad because only two months after this great ballad of wistful hope was recorded and this fairy tale classic movie was released, Britain declared war on Germany, and World War 2 began. Our longed-for dreams came crashing down in cataclysmic ruin. But isn’t that the way it always is?
Sad because everyone in this movie is now dead. But if you can suspend belief for just one moment and drift back into your very own once upon a time, you just know that that entire cast is waiting there over the rainbow, watching over all of us.
A little known fact:
This song was recorded twice for the movie – once in the first five minutes after Auntie Em tells her to find herself a place where she won’t get into trouble. She wanders off, talking to Toto a bit, then breaks out into song. This is the well known version.
However, originally there was another version in the movie. When Dorothy was imprisoned by the Wicked Witch of the West in her prison, with the hourglass of her life running out and her death drawing near. She then sings this song again, this time amidst real tears. She cries all the way through the songm unable to finish. Then she cries out, “I’m scared, Auntie Em!” She sees Auntie Em in the hourglass, only to be replaced by the Wicked Witch taunting her cruelly.
There is a third version of the song, an instrumental only version that plays over the ending credits.
The film is lost to time, history, the dust bin, and the cutting room floor, but the audio survived and is included in a 2 DVD version of the movie released in 1995. Might be nice to hear that.
Garland made this her signature song, performing again through her career, singing it on stage for the next 30 years.
Rip Judy Garland.
