Ever since my co-worker got “Rainbow Connection” stuck in my head a few months ago, this question has been bugging me. Mainly because I felt like there weren’t actually that many songs about rainbows and what’s on the other side (that “and” is kind of the crux of this whole thing; there are plenty of songs just about rainbows). Basically there’s just the big one and then a handful of forgettable imitations, right?
So I finally got around to doing some research. Here’s the list I came up with from an admittedly cursory search of lyrics:
- “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” — 1939
- “Dolphin’s Smile” — 1968
- “Down By the River” — 1969
- “It’s a Long Way to London Town” — 1970
- “She’s Good” — 1971
- “It’s You” — 1973
- “70’s Scenario” — 1974
- “All My Roads (Lead Back to You)” — 1974
- “The End of the Rainbow” — 1974
- “Rainbow Love” — 1974
- “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” —1976
- “Hey Packy” — 1976
- “Life at Rainbow’s End (For All the Tax Exiles on Main Street)” — 1977
- “Rainbow’s End” — 1978
- “Rainbow Connection” — 1979
Of these 14 songs (not counting “Rainbow Connection” itself) that mention rainbows and what’s on the other side, only six of them are actually about rainbows and what’s on the other side. It’s debatable, but I’m going to say there aren’t that many.
As to the why, I think I was on the right track with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” First of all, I couldn’t find any song from before 1939 that fit our criteria. The next earliest reference in song that I could find is The Byrd’s “Dolphin’s Smile” from 1968, the writers of which would have all been young children in 1949 and young teens in 1956. The reason those dates are important: 1949 is when The Wizard of Oz was re-released in theaters, and 1956 is when it was first broadcast on CBS to such high ratings that they kept airing it for years after.
The first song I could find that is actually about rainbows and what’s on the other side is Richard and Linda Thompson’s “The End of the Rainbow” from 1974. Richard (1949) and Linda (1947) would have both been at the perfect age for The Wizard of Oz when it started airing in 1956.
From there, whether it’s the continuing coming of age of people who were wowed by the film as kids, the snowballing collection of references in popular culture, or a bit of both, one can come up with plausible Wizard of Oz connections for all the songs on the list. And since the human brain is great at making patterns out of very little data, it’s not hard to imagine the writers of “Rainbow Connection” hearing the handful of songs from the late 70’s that are (one more time, all together) about rainbows and what’s on the other side, and wondering why there were so many of them.
So that clears up that mystery. Next time we’ll find out what, in fact, he’s building in there.
Certain of Eventual Failure 