''Over the Rainbow'' is a

charity album A charity record or charity single is a song released by musicians with most or all proceeds raised going to a dedicated foundation or charity. George Harrison's "Bangla Desh (song), Bangla Desh" single in 1971 is commonly acknowledged as the fir ...

featuring

show tune A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context. ...

s recorded by various artists. It was released on 4 June 2007 by

Universal Classics and Jazz Universal Classics and Jazz (UCJ) is the name of two record label divisions of the Universal Music Group record company. Current divisions UCJ Germany Universal Music Classics & Jazz (Germany) is a division of Universal Music Germany and is mar ...

. The album was conceived by

Anneka Rice Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a Welsh-born television and radio presenter, broadcaster, journalist and painter. Early life and education Rice was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wales, ...

and produced by

Tolga Kashif Tolga Kashif (Tolga Kaşif) (born 1962) is a British born musical conductor, composer, orchestrator, producer and arranger of Turkish Cypriot descent. Early life Turkish-Cypriot Tolga Kashif was born in London. Before going on to further educati ...

. The making of ''Over the Rainbow'' was featured in a TV special of ''

Challenge Anneka ''Challenge Anneka'' is a British reality programme that aired on BBC1 from 8 September 1989 to 15 October 1995 and was hosted by Anneka Rice. It was announced in 2006 that the series was returning, but this time on ITV. The first of the two s ...

'' broadcast by

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

on 6 June 2007. £2 of every album sale went to the Association of Children's Hospices. The album launch included a concert held at the

Chickenshed Chickenshed (also known as Chicken Shed or the Chicken Shed Theatre Company) is a British theatre company based in Southgate, London. Chickenshed's membership programme comprises four Children's theatre groups and two Youth theatre groups for you ...

theatre featuring performances by children from hospices around the UK and artists featured on the album. The album peaked at no. 1 on the

UK Compilation Chart The UK Compilation Chart is a record chart based on sales of multi artist compilation albums in the United Kingdom. It is compiled weekly by the Official Charts Company (OCC), and each week's Top 40 is published online on the official websites of ...

Background

'' is a British reality TV show in which presenter

is tasked with accomplishing a project, typically within a short time period, in aid of a charitable cause. The regular series aired between 1989 and 1995 on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

. The show was revived by

for two specials in 2006 and 2007. In March 2007, The Association of Children's Hospices challenged Rice to compile a studio album of newly recorded songs and hold a concert featuring live artists and a choir of children from various hospices around the UK. The album was put together in five days.

Recording

Twelve of the thirteen tracks were recorded especially for the ''Over the Rainbow'' project. "

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

" by

Michael Bolton Michael Bolotin
, The Jewish Historical Society of New Haven, 1998. (born February 26, 1953), known professio ...

is the only pre-existing recording, taken from his album '' Bolton Swings Sinatra: The Second Time Around'' (2006).

McFly McFly are an English pop rock band formed in London in 2003. The band took their name from the '' Back to the Future'' character Marty McFly. The band consists of Tom Fletcher (lead vocals, guitar, and piano), Danny Jones (lead vocals, har ...

recorded their vocals for "

You're the One That I Want "You're the One That I Want" is a song performed by American actor and singer John Travolta and Anglo-Australian singer, songwriter and actress Olivia Newton-John for the 1978 film version of the musical '' Grease''. It was written and produc ...

" on the morning of 1 April 2007 within the Fleetwood Mobile studio in a hotel car park. All other tracks were recorded between 3 and 4 April 2007 at

Air Studios Associated Independent Recording (AIR) is an independent recording company founded in London in 1965 by record producer Sir George Martin and his business partner John Burgess, after their departure from Parlophone. The studio complex was founded ...

Track listing

Charts

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. *

– production, keyboards, programming *

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...

* The Rainbow Choir; Catherine Alexander, Nicko Anderson, Ceri & Bethany Astill, Kelly Atkinson, Jonathan Brook, Thomas Blumire, Lewis Cole, Fran Duff, Greg Fears, Charlie Marshall, Rhiannah Munday, Suzanna Ocansey, Sian Tolfree, Harvey Tye * Simon Hanhart – mixing * Nick Wollage – orchestra engineer * Tom Lewis – A&R * Tony Dunne – artist coordinator * Bekkie Sunley – product manager * Peacock; Keith Peacock and Stuart Crouch – design and cover illustration * Scott Wishart – photography

References

{{Reflist

External links

The Association of Children's Hospices

''Challenge Anneka''
at

itv.com itv.com is the main website of ITV plc, the UK's largest commercial television broadcaster which operates 13 out of 15 regions on the ITV network under the ITV brand (or the UTV brand in Northern Ireland). The website offers online streaming, ...

2007 compilation albums Charity albums Covers albums