Amba Tremain - Over The Rainbow (Popular by Judy Garland and Eva Cassidy)

Amba Tremain singing Over The Rainbow, made popular by Eva Cassidy.

Amba sang backing vocals on the Eva Cassidy album "Somewhere"

Judy Garland first pre-recorded the song on the MGM soundstages on October 7, 1938, using an arrangement by Murray Cutter. A studio recording of the song, not from the actual film soundtrack, was recorded and released as a single by Decca Records in September 1939. In March 1940, that same recording was included on a Decca 78-RPM four-record studio cast album entitled "The Wizard of Oz". Even though this is not the version of the song featured in the film, Decca would continue to re-release the so-called "Cast Album" well into the 1960s after it was re-issued as a single-record 33⅓ RPM LP. Garland always performed the song without altering it, singing exactly as she did for the movie. She explained her fidelity by saying that she was staying true to the character of Dorothy and to the message of really being somewhere over the rainbow.

It was not until 1956, when MGM released the true soundtrack album from the film, that the film version of the song was made available to the public. The 1956 soundtrack release was timed to coincide with the television premiere of the movie.[4] The soundtrack version has been re-released several times over the years, including in a "Deluxe Edition" from Rhino Records in 1995.[5]

At the time of Garland's original release, hers was initially not the most commonly played version in jukeboxes, where versions by dance bands such as Bob Crosby and Glenn Miller's predominated, however, 'Over the Rainbow' would eventually become the signature song most closely identified with Garland and she would perform it for the next thirty years, until her death in 1969. In a letter to Harold Arlen, Garland wrote:

"'Over the Rainbow' has become part of my life. It's so symbolic of everybody's dreams and wishes that I'm sure that's why some people get tears in their eyes when they hear it. I've sung it thousands of times and it's still the song that's closest to my heart."[6]


Eva Cassidy recorded her version of the song for the 1992 Chuck Brown/Eva Cassidy album The Other Side. After Cassidy's death in 1996, the song was included in her posthumously-released compilation album Songbird, released in 1998 and was released as a CD single in 2001. This version was popularised by the BBC on BBC Radio 2 and on the television show Top of the Pops 2, the latter of which featured a video recording of Cassidy performing the song. This publicity helped push sales of the compilation album Songbird to #1 in the UK charts. Eva Cassidy's unique rendition of "Over the Rainbow" was selected by the BBC in the UK for their "Songs of the Century" album in the year 1999. Cassidy's performance of "Over the Rainbow" at Blues Alley was published for the first time in January 2011 on her Simply Eva album.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Over The Rainbow
• Judy Garland
• Eva Cassidy
• Amba Tremain
• Frankie Hipwell-Larkin