Over the Rainbow (Live)

This next song is perhaps
One of the best known songs in the entire world
I knew the man who wrote the words - Yip Harburg
The "Y" stood for the word "yipsel", meaning squirrel in Yiddish
He was always climbing trees, and his parents called him Yipsel
And "Yip" became his nickname 'til the end of his life

And, he and a musician named Harold Arlen got a plum of a job
To write the songs for a musical version of the Wizard of Oz in 1938
And when the two men got together to start their job of writing songs
Yip said to Harold, Arlen, he said
"Harold, find me a melody for the phrase 'Over the Rainbow'"
Arlen said "There's no rainbow in the Wizard of Oz"
"I've read the script"
Yip says, "I'm putting it in!"

All around the world, it's a symbol of people working together
When they finally got this great song
The producer tried to cut it from the show
'Cause it slows up the opening
The two men went on a strike, a two-man strike
"This movie is not going to be made unless this song is in it!"
They had a contract
Hundreds of thousands of dollars was being spent
Extras, scenery, everything was all set to roll
And nothing was rolling

Finally, Louis B. Mayer, the head of M.G.M
Said, "Oh, let the boys have their song, let's get rolling"
And that's how the movie is brought back for a reunion every few years
So the whole world knows it, and you know it
And uh, I'll give you the words if you don't know all the words

Somewhere over the rainbow
(Somewhere over the rainbow) Way up high
(Way up high)
There's a land
(There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby)
Somewhere over the rainbow
(Somewhere over the rainbow) Skies are blue
(Skies are blue) And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true!
(And the dreams that you dare to dream)
(Really do come true)
Someday I'll wish upon a star
(Someday I'll wish upon a star)
(And wake up where the clouds are far behind me)
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Way up above the chimney tops
(Where troubles melt like lemon drops)
(Oh, way up above the chimney tops)
(That's where you'll find me) Somewhere over the rainbow
(Somewhere over the rainbow) Bluebirds fly
(Bluebirds fly)
Birds fly over the rainbow, why then oh why can't I?
(Birds fly over the rainbow)
(Why then, oh, why can't I?)

Now there's two more lines to the song
But I found I had to change two words
Somewhere up there I can hear Yip saying
"Pete, you can fool around with your old folk songs"
"But don't you touch Over the Rainbow, please!"
Yip, wherever you are, I got to change two words
'Cause if I'd been there when little Dorothy said "why can't I"
I'd tell her
"You know why you can't, Dorothy?"
"It's because you only ask for yourself"
You gotta ask for everybody
'Cause either we're all gonna make it over that rainbow
Or nobody's gonna make it

So sing, "If plucky little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow"
"Why can't you and I"
Here we go

If plucky little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow
Why can't you and I?