Which version of this song is your favorite?? I'd say it's hard to beat the original, but I really love both of the other ones I talk about in this video. All for different reasons! Also, grab the details for this year's Black Friday promo here: https://resources.betterpiano.com/bf24

Over the Rainbow was used in my childhood music education to teach the idea of an octave. That's how universal and well known this song is to generations.

THE anthem for dreaming of a better world.

My dad was Bruddah IZ’s percussionist.  He was a good family friend back when we used to live in Hawai’i.  Our families shared ancestral ties to the island of Ni’ihau.  He even gave my sister her middle name when she was born.  Even though I only have distant memories of Israel since the family left O'ahu when I was still very young, I do know he was a beautiful human being taken from us far too soon.

I cannot recommend the Facing Future album enough.  There’s other great songs on there too, many sung in the native Hawai’ian language.  Some may not understand the words, but the music itself is gorgeous on its own merits as well.  Beautiful, haunting, traditional Hawai’ian music.  Also, the full version of Over the Rainbow is coupled with an equally gorgeous rendition of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World."

What astonishes me about Judy's performance is that she was friggin' 16 years old in that movie! With that voice and control and panache. Just insane.

And to think that song almost got cut from the film…

You’re the man Charles!  And your pronunciation of “Kamakawiwoʻole” was on point!

“Over the Rainbow” was, in fact, cut from the film The Wizard of Oz by the second preview. Victor Fleming, the film’s director, said “The whole first part of that show is awful slow because of that number. We gotta take it out” but it was the producer Mervyn LeRoy who made the final decision to axe it.

The song’s creators, lyricist E.Y. “Yip” Harburg (in childhood he had been nicknamed “Yipsel,” Yiddish for squirrel* which was a name for young people in the Young People’s Socialist League at the time that Harburg was growing up)  and composer Harold Arlen, went ballistic, pleading for “Over the Rainbow” to be put back in but none of that mattered until assistant producer Arthur Freed, who had hired Harburg and Arlen in the first place, went over the heads of Fleming and Leroy to the head of the studio, Louis B. Mayer, and said “The song stays—or I go!” The song stayed. It would go on to win the 1939 Oscar for Best Original Song and, decades later, in 2001, in a joint survey by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America, be voted “the greatest song of the 20th century.”

*The Forward, the long-running Yiddish-language newspaper, says there is no word yipsel for “squirrel” (or anything else—presumably the Forward would know)—that word is veverke. The “squirrel” story, repeated countless times online, appears to be a myth.

The fact that we’re discussing a performance 85 years ago says something about the quality.

What I think what makes this song the GOAT are the low notes.  Garland and IZ are the perfect voices for those low resonating notes.

I'm so disappointed that you didn't include the iconic Eva Cassidy version of Over the Rainbow in your analysis. I think it totally deserves a listen.

My older sister passed away about 20 years ago. She was a Soprano for the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. They used Bruddah Iz’s version of this song at her Funeral…every time I hear it I think of her.😢

You're spot on about her taste in the original version. That Judy Garland was so young, and able to imbue the song with so much of her personality yet also keep it so simple, and not obscure the amazing melody, is a miracle and shows how truly amazing she was.

Such a beautiful song. I can't think of another one that can evoke hope, desperation, grief, joy all at the same time. Just phenomenal.

Over The Rainbow is number 1 on AFI's list of 100 greatest movie songs

How are we not going to mention the superb countermelody the clarinet plays during the bridge?!?  Stunning, masterful orchestration, especially the upper extensions at the end. Really brings out the wistful, floaty feeling of the passage.

You can't beat Judy Garland for tearing your heart out.

Eva Cassidy’s version is also gorgeous

This is the reason why fretless strings instruments are SO good an imitating the human voice. Imitating Judy on my Cello is something i STRIVE for. The up and down glissandos on those half-steps really does the magic.
Also, the way ahe comes down past a note a semi-tone and back up to it is beautiful..you CANNOT do that on a discrete interval instrument.

So my answer, Judy's version will always be the standard 😊

You know, Stephen Schwartz used the first seven notes of "Over the Rainbow" for the "Unlimited" leitmotif in Wicked, now playing on Broadway and coming soon to a theater near you. 😉

Judy Garlands version is 100% one of my favorites of all time