Song Previews
The songs were first heard on radio on a program called MGM: Leo Is On the Air a few months prior to the film's release. Brunswick Records had earlier recorded a single of Over the Rainbow as well as The Jitterbug, a song eventually deleted from the film, but MGM had suppressed the recording because they wanted to preview the songs themselves. The radio preview proved a huge success and, through repeated live radio playings, "Over the Rainbow" soared to the top of the hit parade charts even before audiences saw the film.
An obviously staged "backstage glimpse" at the planning and making of the film, hosted by Robert Young, and featuring Judy Garland, lyricist E.Y. Harburg, and composer Harold Arlen, was the subject of an episode of the Good News of 1939 radio program. This program also gave a sneak preview of some of the music, but interspersed it with comedy skits by such artists as Fannie Brice. Ms. Brice, in her radio persona of Baby Snooks, was featured in a skit in which Lancelot Higgins (Hanley Stafford) tried to tell her the story of The Wizard of Oz, but was constantly interrupted (and kept from attending the film's premiere) by the toddler. The entire program, as well as the Leo is On the Air episode, is included as a supplement on the Wizard of Oz DVD.
Read more about this topic: Musical Selections In The Wizard Of Oz
Famous quotes containing the word song:
“The quarrel of the sparrows in the eaves,
The full round moon and the star-laden sky,
And the loud song of the ever-singing leaves,
Had hid away earth’s old and weary cry.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)