Rainbow Connections

Judy, Barbra, Frank, Kermit, and Sarah

Music, if it’s good, has a way of getting under your skin. A song can be linked to an important moment in your life, or when you first heard it. Here are a few of these connections in my life that stick with me.

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

The first time I heard “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was when my parents and grandparents took me and my brother Vince to see The Wizard of Oz at the Lakewood theater in East Dallas. After the movie, we went next door to Ashburn’s ice cream shop. The movie first appeared in 1939, but the year I saw it was when it was reissued in 1949. I was six years old.

“Happy Days are Here Again”

Flash forward to 1962: I was a freshman at the University of Texas in Austin, living in a small one-bedroom apartment I rented from a nice elderly lady. This is when I heard an amazing voice on the radio (I had no TV). I was so struck by the voice that I called the radio station to ask who the singer was. The disk jockey laughed, because everyone in the world but me knew the answer. It was Barbra Streisand singing “Happy Days are Here Again”:

Written in 1929, the song originally appeared in the 1930 film Chasing Rainbows (speaking of rainbows). It then became FDR’s 1932 presidential campaign song and lived on as a rally for the Democrats. But I realized Streisand was singing it as a sad song, not the traditionally happy, upbeat sound.

Garland and Streisand

Here is Barbra Streisand joining Judy Garland on October 4, 1963 finding the ironic sadness behind “Happy Days Are Here Again” and “Get Happy”. This was just days after Kennedy’s assassination.

JFK, Music and Me

I’ve thought about the excitement of JFK’s presidency, the shock of his death, and what my mother and I were doing at that time. She was working for Lone Star Steel in downtown Dallas, but she decided because of the crowds she wouldn’t go see Kennedy’s motorcade going down Elm Street.

At the same time, I was playing the piano in an empty auditorium at the University of Texas. Some of the songs I remember playing were Andre Previn’s “Like Young”, Sarah Vaughn’s “That’s All”, and Frank Sinatra’s “Time After Time”:

At one point, I heard some activity in the foyer and walked out to see Walter Cronkite on black and white TV announcing Kennedy’s death. Then time stood still.

Kermit and Sarah

Forty years after Judy Garland first sang “Over the Rainbow”, Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher wrote “The Rainbow Connection”. These days, I think about that song, first sung by Kermit the frog in a swamp. The song echoes Dorothy’s dream of leaving a humdrum Kansas life and Pinocchio’s wishing upon a star.

“Have you been half asleep, and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same

I've heard it too many times to ignore it
It's something that I'm supposed to be

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.”

Here is Sarah McLachlan’s beautiful version:

Music is a kind of connective tissue in our lives, marking when and where we first heard a melody. Thanks to all the composers and musicians who bring joy to our lives.

“The Rainbow Connection” offers the kind of hope and optimism I think we all need now … something that we’re supposed to be. “Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection, The lovers, the dreamers, and me.”