1939 Hit Song, Featured in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ Kickstarted 17-Year-Old’s Music Career

Judy Garland was only 17 when she played Dorothy Gale in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz, but her performance of “Over the Rainbow” would become much more than a memorable movie moment. 

The song helped launch Garland’s music career and later became the signature song that followed her for decades.

Written by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg, “Over the Rainbow” was created for The Wizard of Oz, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical fantasy that introduced Garland to audiences around the world in one of her most famous roles.

Garland’s version of the song quickly became closely linked with her name. The ballad won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became one of the most recognized songs associated with classic Hollywood.

For Garland, the song was also an important step in a career that would span movies, records and live performances.

She had already been performing for years before The Wizard of Oz. Born Frances Ethel Gumm in 1922, Garland first appeared on stage when she was just two years old, per RR Auction. She performed with her older sisters as part of the Gumm Sisters, a family vaudeville act.

In 1935, when she was 13, she signed with MGM. She soon began appearing in movies and recording music. Her early recording career included “(Dear Mr. Gable) You Made Me Love You,” which helped bring attention to her voice.

But “Over the Rainbow” gave Garland a song that would stay with her for the rest of her career.

In The Wizard of Oz, Garland sings “Over the Rainbow” as Dorothy dreams about finding a place far away from her troubles in Kansas.

The song appears early in the movie, after Dorothy struggles to make the adults around her understand her problems. She walks away with her dog, Toto, and imagines a place where there is no trouble.

The emotional scene helped show another side of Garland’s talent. She was not simply acting as Dorothy. She was also using her voice to express the character’s hopes and feelings.

The song was nearly removed from the movie. The studio reportedly felt that a slow ballad so early in the story could slow down the film. The producer and director, however, pushed for the song to remain.

That decision became an important part of movie and music history.

Garland recorded the song for MGM in 1938, with an arrangement by Murray Cutter. She later recorded it for Decca in 1939. The Decca recording became part of a four-record The Wizard of Oz album.

Interestingly, the commercially released Decca version was not the exact recording heard in the movie. The film version was not released on a soundtrack album until 1956, when MGM issued The Wizard of Oz soundtrack to coincide with the movie’s television premiere.

“Over the Rainbow” became the foundation of Garland’s music career, which eventually included 11 studio albums released between 1939 and 1962.

Her recording career continued long after her years as a young MGM star. She recorded songs from movies, worked with major arrangers and later became known for powerful live performances.

According to uDiscover Music, her career included major songs such as “The Trolley Song,” “Get Happy,” “The Man That Got Away” and “That’s Entertainment!” But “Over the Rainbow” remained the song most strongly connected to her name.

Garland’s live performances became another major part of her legacy. Her 1962 album Judy at Carnegie Hall captured one of her most famous concert appearances and earned her Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Solo Vocal Performance, Female.

In 1981, Garland’s original 1939 Decca recording of “Over the Rainbow” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2017, it was selected for the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The song has also appeared on major lists recognizing important American music. The American Film Institute named it the best movie song on its AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs list.

More than eight decades after The Wizard of Oz premiered, “Over the Rainbow” remains closely tied to Judy Garland’s name. What began as a song for a 17-year-old actress playing a Kansas farm girl became the defining recording of a performer whose career lasted more than four decades.

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