Over the Rainbow, Judy Garland, The Wizard of Oz

I’m sure everyone has seen this clip from The Wizard of Oz many times. I can remember it being on every christmas when I was a child. There is just something about it though. A perfect moment captured on film. A classic moment in the history of cinematography. For me the song has to be sung by Judy Garland. She made it her own. You could say the same about the film itself. There have been a number of adaptations made of The Wizard of Oz, but nothing compares to this.

The music was written by Harold Arlen and the lyrics by E Y Harburg. It received an Academy Award for Best Original Song. In later works Garland could appear hammy by todays standards, but there is a youthful exuberance/yearning that works perfectly as Dorothy Gale.

It’s interesting to note that the song was initially deleted from the film.The MGM chief executive, Louis B Meyer, and producer, Mervyn LeRoy, thought it “slowed down the picture”. It was only maintained by the persistence of the associate producer Arthur Freed and Garland’s coach/mentor Roger Edens.