The song of the day for Saturday, June 21, 2013 is “Over the Rainbow.”
About This Song
Today’s song is, of course, from the great 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz and was written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. And, famously, introduced by Judy Garland. It also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The American Film Institute, in its list of the 100 greatest movie songs, ranked it as #1 and The National Endowment For The Arts named it “The Song” of the 20th Century. NPR has an excellent story that analyzes today’s “Over The Rainbow”; click here to listen. Not surprisingly, Judy Garland introduced five of the top 100 songs on the list, adding “The Man That Got Away” (#11), “The Trolley Song” (#26), “Get Happy” (#61) and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” (#76). Tony Bennett has recorded all of these songs introduced by Judy Garland.
About This Version
Tony Bennett recorded “Over The Rainbow” in 1960 for Tony Bennett Sings A String Of Harold Arlen. The arrangement is by Glenn Osser and is really quite nice. One of the many reasons I love this version is that Bennett sings the verse, which was cut from the movie and is seldom heard.
http://open.spotify.com/track/06ElUZ4yGFDhA5k2wwpn3p
“Over The Rainbow,” as well Tony Bennett Sings A String Of Harold Arlen, is available from iTunes.
And since it’s Saturday, here’s the lyricist Yip Harburg, talking about and singing his song:
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