From '' Homer And Jethro Murder The Standards ''
Label: King – EP-226
Format: Vinyl, EP
Country: US
Released: 1953
Tracklist
A1 Over The Rainbow
A2 Glow Worm
B1 Night And Day
B2 Always
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\"Over the Rainbow\" (often referred to as \"Somewhere Over the Rainbow\") is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg.
It was written for the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, and was sung by actress Judy Garland in her starring role as Dorothy Gale.
Over time it would become Garland's signature song.
In the film, part of the song is played by the MGM orchestra over the opening credits. About five minutes into the movie, actress Judy Garland playing the lead character, Dorothy, sings \"Over the Rainbow\" after unsuccessfully trying to get her aunt and uncle to listen to her relate an unpleasant incident involving her dog, Toto, and the nasty spinster, Miss Gulch (Margaret Hamilton). Dorothy's Aunt Em tells her to \"find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble\", prompting Dorothy to walk off by herself.
She muses to Toto \"Someplace 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.....\", and begins singing the song. The famous sequence itself, as well as the entirety of the Kansas scenes, was directed (though uncredited) by King Vidor. The song itself was written about Douglasville, Georgia but the Kansas setting was more fitting for the song and the scenes that followed.
Original recording
Judy Garland first pre-recorded the song on the MGM soundstages on October 7, 1938, using an arrangement by Murray Cutter.
A studio recording of the song, not from the actual film soundtrack, was recorded and released as a single by Decca Records in September 1939.
In March 1940, that same recording was included on a Decca 78-RPM four-record studio cast album entitled The Wizard of Oz.
Other charting or significant versions
In singles and albums
Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's album Facing Future, released in 1993, included a ukulele medley of \"Over the Rainbow\" and \"What a Wonderful World\".
Eva Cassidy recorded a version of the song for the 1992 Chuck Brown/Eva Cassidy album The Other Side.
Danielle Hope, the winner of the Wizard of Oz-themed BBC talent show Over the Rainbow, released a cover version of the song.
During her treatment and recovery from breast cancer, Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue released a live cover version of the song.
Doo-wop group The Demensions charted the song to #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960.
Australian band Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs' version topped the Australian music charts in 1965 and a later revision of the song also charted in 1974 following Billy Thorpe's blue's based revival of the song at the 1973 Sunbury Pop Festival.
Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles album Over the Rainbow peaked at #20 on the US R&B charts in 1966.
Marusha charted on #3 in the German single charts in 1994 with a dance-version of the song.
Katharine McPhee released a cover of the song and it peaked at #12 on The Billboard Hot 100.
Jerry Lee Lewis had a number 10 hit single of the song on the American country music chart in 1980.
Australian Musical Theatre Star Erin Hasan released a version in her debut Album '8' in 2012
Nicholas David, contestant of the third season of U.S. rendition of The Voice, charted the song to #96 in 2012, selling 48,000 copies of the song.
In films
Two years after the release of The Wizard of Oz, the tune appeared throughout the film I Wake Up Screaming (1941), starring Betty Grable and Victor Mature.
Jimmy Stewart sang a \"drunken\" comedic version of it on camera in The Philadelphia Story (1940).
An instrumental piano bar version can be heard in the classic Paul Newman film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), as Newman's character carries a drugged, inebriated and aging movie star up to her hotel room. It was a subtle allegory used by director Richard Brooks to help illustrate and lend pathos to the lead characters.
It can also be heard in an ironic context in the Vincent Price horror film, Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972).
Director Nora Ephron used two different versions of the song in her movies Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. Coincidentally both movies star Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in the lead roles. The versions used are by Ray Charles and Harry Nilsson but only the latter one is included on a soundtrack release of the film.
