What 1939 movie featured the song 'Over the Rainbow'?

The 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz featured the song “Over the Rainbow.” Judy Garland sings it as Dorothy Gale, expressing her longing for a place beyond the troubles of her Kansas home.

The song was written by composer Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s film adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s Oz stories. In the movie, Dorothy sings it early in the film after Aunt Em and the farmhands are too busy to listen to her concerns about Toto and Miss Gulch. The quiet Kansas setting contrasts with the spectacular fantasy world she later enters.

“Over the Rainbow” became Garland’s signature song and one of the best-known numbers in American popular culture. It was nearly removed from the film because studio executives considered it too slow or too sophisticated for a children’s fantasy. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and Garland’s original 1939 recording was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.