On the Radio Now

Harlem to Hollywood: The Music of Harold Arlen

Critic Alec Wilder called songwriter Harold Arlen "a product of American jazz." Though his rhythm numbers were popular with jazz artists Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, and in Harlem's Cotton Club revues, his most popular and enduring piece is a sentimental ballad from The Wizard of Oz, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Arlen with Wizard cast,
June 1939. Photo courtesy Yip Harburg Estate