Whoever Gabby is, she’s been immortalized…

Initially deleted as a film track after MGM Chief, Louis B. Mayer thought the song “slowed down the picture” it came down to the persistence of Judy Garland’s vocal coach and an associate producer before the black-balled Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg number was re-included in “The Wizard of Oz”.

Of course that persistence paid off.  Not only did “Over the Rainbow” win the 1939 Academy Award for Best Original Song, it was later rated as the American Film Institutes’ “Greatest Movie Song of All Time” while topping the RIAA’s list of “Songs of the Century.”

But despite Garland’s signature rendition, along with memorable covers by Eva Cassidy, Livingston Taylor and others, by century’s end it was 750 pound Hawaiian born and bred Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole (“Iz for short) who would come to own it, with  his gently-pitched vocals and warm ukulele playing, while melding in a verse from Bob Thiele and George David Weiss’ 1968 “What a Wonderful World” for good measure.

All that weight on his 6′ 2″ frame invariably ushered in his passing, from respiratory problems, at the age of 38.  But the man had clearly struck a chord with his fellow native Hawaiians and he became only the third person ever to lie in state in the Capitol Building in Honolulu so that over ten thousand people could come to pay their final respects.

LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Sunday 14 October 

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

 Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

And the dreams that you dreamed of

Once in a lullaby ii ii iii

Somewhere over the rainbow

Blue birds fly

And the dreams that you dreamed of

Dreams really do come true ooh ooooh

Someday I’ll wish upon a star

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me ee ee eeh

Where trouble melt like lemon drops

High above the chimney tops thats where you’ll find me oh

Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly

And the dream that you dare to,why, oh why can’t I? i iiii

Well I see trees of green and

Red roses too,

I’ll watch them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

Well I see skies of blue and I see clouds of white

And the brightness of day

I like the dark and I think to myself

What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people passing by

I see friends shaking hands

Saying, “How do you do?”

They’re really saying, I…I love you

I hear babies cry and I watch them grow,

They’ll learn much more

Than we’ll know

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world (w)oohoorld

Someday I’ll wish upon a star,

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

High above the chimney top that’s where you’ll find me

Oh, Somewhere over the rainbow way up high

And the dream that you dare to, why, oh why can’t I? I hiii ?