Description

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Arranged for Clarinet Quartet
by
ALEX RUSSO

“Over the Rainbow” (often referred to as “Somewhere over the Rainbow“) is a ballad, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939) and was sung by actress Judy Garland, in her starring role as Dorothy Gale. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became Garland’ssignature 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 her aunt and uncle to listen to her relate an unpleasant incident involving her dog, Toto, and the townspinster, Miss Gulch. Dorothy’s Aunt Em tells her to “find yourself a place where you won’t get into any trouble”. This prompts Dorothy 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.

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 “Over the Rainbow” the greatest movie song of all time on the list of “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs”.

It was adopted (along with Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” (1942)) by American troops in Europe in World War II, as a symbol of the United States. Garland performed the song for the troops as part of a 1943 performance.

In April 2005, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp recognizing lyricist Yip Harburg’s accomplishments; the stamp features the opening lyric from “Over the Rainbow”.^{[citation needed]}

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.