Knowra Yip Harburg Yip Harburg Yip Harburg was an American lyricist and librettist whose songs include “Over the Rainbow” and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” He combined wordplay and social commentary in songs for Broadway and Hollywood.
Over the Rainbow : A song from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Yip Harburg. Its yearning lyrics became Harburg’s most enduring expression of hope.
Harold Arlen : An American composer known for songs including “Over the Rainbow,” written with lyricist Yip Harburg. Their collaboration produced the songs for The Wizard of Oz and several other works.
Lower East Side : A Manhattan neighborhood shaped by successive waves of immigration and working-class life. Harburg grew up in this immigrant neighborhood, whose speech and struggles informed his outlook.
The Wizard of Oz : A 1939 American musical fantasy film directed by Victor Fleming, with songs by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Harburg’s lyrics help define the film’s emotional journey and its contrast between Kansas and Oz.
Academy Award for Best Original Song : An annual Academy Award recognizing an original song written for a motion picture. Harburg and Harold Arlen won the award for “Over the Rainbow.”
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? : A 1932 American song by Jay Gorney and Yip Harburg about workers left destitute during the Great Depression. Its lyrics turn the promise of national prosperity into a plea from an unemployed laborer.
Jay Gorney : An American composer who collaborated with Yip Harburg on “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” Gorney supplied the music for the song whose lyrics made Harburg a voice of Depression-era hardship.
Great Depression : A worldwide economic crisis beginning in 1929, marked by mass unemployment and severe hardship. The crisis provides the historical setting for “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”
Finian's Rainbow : A 1947 Broadway musical with a book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy and music by Burton Lane. Harburg co-created this fantasy musical, which combines romance with political satire.
Songs of the Great Depression : Popular songs that expressed the economic hardship and social tensions of the 1930s. “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” became one of the era’s defining musical accounts of unemployment.
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