Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland
Sometimes, a song becomes more than a piece of beauty or even an emotion. It becomes the cultural shorthand for a time or a country.
Over the Rainbow (also known as Somewhere over the Rainbow) is one such song. Sung by Judy Garland for The Wizard of Oz, it captured the wistful yearning of young Dorothy Gale for a better life where “troubles melt like lemon drops”.
The year was 1939. The Second World War had started. America had yet to forget the horrors of the Great Depression. People needed a land of Oz.
Composer Harold Arlen and songwriter Yip Harburg served up hope to the world in teenage Judy’s contralto.
Somewhere, over the rainbow
Way up high
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby
Somewhere, over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true....
Around seven years before this, Harburg had written what became America’s anthem for the Depression — Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? It wasn’t a plea from a beggar, it was a reminder from Everyman who had “built a railroad... made it race against time... built a tower up to the sun...”, who had fought the war and tilled the earth, and now found himself with nothing.
In the backdrop of that gloom, Over the Rainbow conjures up a vista of opportunities.
“We worked for in our songs a sort of better world, a rainbow world,” Harburg once said. “Now, my generation unfortunately never succeeded in making that rainbow world, so we can’t hand it down to you. But we could hand down our songs, which still hang on to hope and laughter… in times of confusion.”
It’s also the song that transformed Judy from a star to a phenomenon. Born Frances Ethel Gumm in 1922, in Minnesota, Judy started working at age two, singing in a vaudeville with her older sisters Mary Jane and Dorothy Virginia.
By 13, she had signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hollywood’s biggest studio at that time, starting a journey of perilous stardom, clouded by doubts over her looks and image, emotional instability, and drug overuse. She died in 1969 at age 47 from an overdose of barbiturates. Ironically, Judy, who became synonymous with Over the Rainbow — she performed it all her life — never found that joyful land where “happy little bluebirds fly”.
The song lives on. Artistes from across generations — Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Eric Clapton, Diana Ross, Ariana Grande, you take your pick — have sung it. But possibly the most loved cover was Hawaiian singer Iz Kamakawiwo‘ole’s sunshiny take in the early 1990s. His voice and ukulele are a warm embrace.
In 2025, the world is no stranger to space travel. Yet, the land over the rainbow remains beyond reach. That’s why you need the song.