The next obstacle came when MGM executives removed the song because they thought it slowed the film down. Fortunately for the rest of the world, they were wrong. Unfortunately for Little Miss Miracle, she couldn’t hit the high notes and Fox wouldn’t release her from her contract, so the movie execs were stuck with Garland, which they considered quite a letdown. Though the role of Dorothy had already been promised to Judy Garland, movie execs had a last-minute change of heart and decided to go with Shirley Temple instead. Without those two components, it’s highly unlikely it would have enjoyed such lasting fame. Getting the lyrics written was just the first of many hurdles that almost prevented the song from being sung by Judy Garland and included in The Wizard of Oz. Unlike Harburg’s thoughtful lyrical construction, Gershwin said he offered up “Why, oh, why can’t I?” as the ending simply because “ It was getting to be a long night.” A few of the false starts were “Someday over the rainbow,” “I’ll go over the rainbow” and “Over the rainbow is where I want to be.” Eventually, and thankfully, he settled on the now iconic opening line, “Somewhere over the rainbow.” In addition to speeding up the tempo, Gershwin made another contribution to the song in the form of the last line. Harburg put a lot of work into the words of the song, and the opening line went through many revisions. Unwilling to scrap his new song, Arlen sought the opinion of famous lyricist Ira Gershwin, who sped up the tempo enough to appease Harburg. But when he shared it with his lyricist, Harburg hated its slow pace and refused to write lyrics for it. Arlen had worked out the melody while sitting in his car in front of a Hollywood drugstore. Right from its conception the song was met with criticism and conflict. It was her signature song and became the most requested (and demanding) tune throughout her chaotic career. Written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, it’s been covered by countless artists but is forever linked with Judy Garland who sang it in The Wizard of Oz.

BLOG Mulling Over the Rainbow: The Bewitching Backstory of the 'Song of the Century'įor a lullaby that clocks in at a scant two minutes, 'Over the Rainbow' has a long and tumultuous history.

Somewhere To Be by Amy Yip