From left, Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, Judy Garland, and Jack Haley are shown in a scene from ‘The Wizard of Oz.’
File Photo
Stop! Before reading any further, please go read my colleague Margaret Roarty’s “In Frame” column from August entitled ‘The Wizard of Oz’ turns 86. Like Margaret, I’m an Oz-head for life. She got to this topic a few months before me, but if any film deserves to be featured twice, it’s “The Wizard of Oz.”
With “Wicked: For Good” coming to theaters this week as the movie event of the year, I’m thinking a lot about last year’s part one, “Wicked,” as well as the MGM classic from 1939, “The Wizard of Oz.” Here, I’d like to rank each of the ten songs that make up the latter’s soundtrack. It takes a bit of self-restraint to restrict the soundtrack of “The Wizard of Oz” down to ten numbers, so let me unpack that process.
I’ve decided to fuse the original songs and their reprises into one entry on the list, unless the reprise is very clearly a different number. So, for example, “If I Only Had a Brain” and “If I Only Had a Heart” share some musical DNA, but they are unique enough to have their own entries. On the other hand, we don’t need a new entry for just one added voice in every “We’re Off to See the Wizard” reprise, so just one entry for that song does the trick.
The big wrinkle in all of this is the humongous Munchkinland sequence, which, if you break it down, can include up to a dozen song fragments, including: “Come Out, Come Out…,” “It Really Was No Miracle,” “We Thank You Very Sweetly,” “Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead” (and its reprise), “As Mayor of the Munchkin City,” “As Coroner, I Must Aver,” “The Lullaby League,” “The Lollipop Guild,” and “We Welcome You to the Munchkin Land.” If someone really wants to rank each of those fragments individually, be my guest, but we’ll be collectively labeling those under the Spotify-approved title of the “Munchkinland Musical Sequence.”
I think that takes care of the ground rules. Let’s get into it!
10. “If I Were King of the Forest”
In what’s practically a perfect film, “If I Were King of the Forest” stands out as an underwhelming sequence. As a scene, the Cowardly Lion’s campy coronation halts the excitement of the gang’s arrival in the Emerald City. While the other two companion songs are perfectly paced in the story, the Lion’s big tune comes a little out of nowhere. Bert Lahr is so good in “The Wizard of Oz,” but his intense vibrato is probably not the sharpest tool in his comedic arsenal.
9. “If I Only Had the Nerve”
I swear I like the Lion! It just so happens that the two songs in which he is featured most prominently are my two least favorite songs on the soundtrack. Again, it’s hard not to play the comparison game to the other two companion songs — “If I Only Had a Brain” and “If I Only Had a Heart.” By contrast, “If I Only Had the Nerve” is lacking in both creative lyricism and length. It’s fun for what it is, but this can’t quite match the stiff competition ahead.
8. “Optimistic Voices”
While extremely slight and ultimately forgettable, I’ve always had a soft spot for this goofy little ditty that accompanies the core four on their way through the poppies. Is this diegetic? Who is singing this? I have many questions, which is more than I can say for my thoughts on the two lower-ranked songs. There’s some intrigue to “Optimistic Voices,” which I consider to be a joy to hear. It gets a ton of credit from me for being super pleasant on the ears.
7. “Follow the Yellow Brick Road”
Just a bit outside of my standard for inclusion alongside the other Munchkinland songs and the “We’re Off to See the Wizard” offshoots, I would contend that the munchkins’ farewell jingle is a song of its own. This ear worm quite literally sets the tone for the rest of the film’s first few acts, during which the titular road is the critical plot device. Sure, the munchkins are a bit incessant with their repetitive directions, but you’d be a liar if you were to say this hasn’t been stuck in your head at some point.
6. “We’re Off to See the Wizard”
Here’s another jingle that falls into the ear worm category. I’ve always enjoyed the “woodchuck chuck”-esque wordplay on display, with the phrase “whiz of a wiz” being at the center of the silliness. To me, “We’re Off to See the Wizard” has always played like the unofficial theme song of the film. When the TV broadcast would go to commercial, you’d be played out with this song, which features vocals by Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Man.
5. “The Merry Old Land of Oz”
This lyric will never not amuse me: “We get up at twelve and start to work at one/Take an hour for lunch and then at two we’re done/Jolly good fun!” The Emerald City is the party’s destination for the first half of the film, so getting there needed to feel like something special. Thankfully, we’re treated to “The Merry Old Land of Oz,” a chaotic-neutral anthem fit for a wizard, or maybe even a phony hiding behind a curtain. In either case, this is a highlight sequence.
4. “If I Only Had a Brain”
Dorothy Gale begins collecting companions for her journey in a cornfield, where a Scarecrow who looks just like Ray Bolger — not to mention, Hunk the farmhand — sings and dances his way to immortality. “If I Only Had a Brain” is a charming “I want” song, and it is the musical mold from which the Tin Man and Cowardly Lion will eventually pull. On a narrative level, it introduces us to the central theme of the film: What is desired has been there all along.
3. “If I Only Had a Heart”
My most iconic Halloween costume as a child was of the Scarecrow, but I’ve actually always been more of a Tin Man kind of guy. “If I Only Had a Heart” has a very cool sound to it, with those lumbering opening notes suiting the character very well. The sentimentality of the Tin Man is well-realized through the lyrics and Jack Haley’s wonderful performance, while his stilted dance sequence is a fun parallel to Bolger’s noodly performance moments earlier.
2. “Munchkinland Musical Sequence”
As noted in the opening, the “Munchkinland Musical Sequence” is packed with content. “The Wizard of Oz” made very good use of its uniquely colorful palette. When Dorothy arrives in Oz, the audience is transported there as well, but that feeling would be temporary if there was nothing interesting to look at and listen to. So, here’s a six-minute sequence with hundreds of characters with costumes and homes that pop with bright pigments. The munchkins could not have been more thrilled to have Dorothy serve as their unwitting assassin.
1. “Over the Rainbow”
Perhaps this whole list was a fruitless exercise, because what else could have been taking up this number one spot besides the greatest movie song of all-time? “Over the Rainbow” is beyond words. Judy Garland, one of the great entertainers of the 20th century, gives the performance of a lifetime before she even lands in Oz. What more can be said? The timelessness of the film has been aided by the perfect song at its core. Would something like “Wicked” have ever existed if Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg had not written “Over the Rainbow?” It seems unlikely. We owe them, and Garland, a great debt for this treasure.
In Frame is a weekly arts and entertainment column focusing on everything from pop culture and new movie releases to the local arts and culture found right here in NEPA. News reporters Sam Zavada and Margaret Roarty contribute to this column.
