"The Man that Got Away" is a
torch song
A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where a romantic affair has affecte ...
, published in 1953 and written for the 1954 version of the film ''
A Star Is Born.'' The music was written by
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ...
, and the lyrics by
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 2 ...
. In 1954, it was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed th ...
. In 2004,
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
's performance of the song was selected by the American Film Institute as the
eleventh greatest song in American cinema history.
Composition
"The Man That Got Away" was one of several songs composed by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin for the 1954 film ''
A Star is Born'', a vehicle for
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
, whom Arlen had already provided with the career-defining songs "
Over the Rainbow" and "
Get Happy". Arlen and Gershwin would collaborate on songs for ''A Star is Born'' afternoons at Gershwin's
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...
mansion, Arlen being seated at a
Steinway
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...
while Gershwin would work on the lyrics seated at a card table. "The Man That Got Away" was written in response to screenwriter
Moss Hart
Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director.
Early years
Hart was born in New York City, the son of Lillian (Solomon) and Barnett Hart, a cigar maker. He had a younger brother ...
's request for a "
dive
Diving most often refers to:
* Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water
* Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes
Diving or Dive may also refer to:
Sports
* Dive (American football), a ...
song". Ira Gershwin's wife Leonore overheard the melody Arlen was working on and opined that it sounded as if it could have been written by Gershwin's deceased collaborator and brother
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
. Not wanting to be an ersatz George Gershwin, Arlen swiftly began playing a melody he had written several years previously for a song which had evidently either never been completed or left unpublished, as its lyricist
Johnny Mercer had penned forgettable lyrics for it. (To wit: "I've seen Sequoia, it's really very pretty, the art of Goya, and Rockefeller City, but since I saw you, I can't believe my eyes." The Gershwin Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin contains a typescript draft of the lyrics with Ira Gershwin's handwritten changes.) Ira Gershwin was arrested by the melody, and came up with the title "The Man That Got Away"
(Ira Gershwin quote:) "as a paraphrase of the
isherman's boast'You should have seen the one that got away'". The composition of the song proved arduous, with hours passing before Gershwin had the opening stanza.
Ira Gershwin had not wanted any of the songs he and Arlen wrote for the film to be "leaked" prior to the score being finished and made Arlen promise to respect this, a request Gershwin reiterated when Arlen mentioned he would be visiting
Palm Springs
Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land ...
, where Judy Garland - along with her husband
Sid Luft
Michael Sidney Luft (November 2, 1915 – September 15, 2005) was an American show business figure, the second husband of actress Lynn Bari, and later the third husband of actress and singer Judy Garland.
Early life
Luft was born in New Yor ...
, producer of ''A Star is Born'' - would be at that time. While accompanying Garland and Sid Luft as they played their way around a Palm Springs
golf course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
, Arlen began whistling the melody of "The Man That Got Away": Garland soon guessed the tune's provenance and insisted that the three of them retire to the clubhouse, where there was a piano for Arlen to play the song properly for Garland and Luft who (in Arlen's words) "went wild with joy."
Judy Garland performance and recording
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
recorded "The Man That Got Away" with the
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
orchestra under the direction of
Ray Heindorf
Raymond John Heindorf (August 25, 1908 – February 3, 1980) was an American composer and songwriter who was noted for his work in film.
Early life
Born in Haverstraw, New York, Heindorf worked as a pianist in a movie house in Mechanicville in ...
using an arrangement by
Skip Martin
Lloyd Vernon "Skip" Martin (May 14, 1916, in Robinson, Illinois – February 12, 1976, in Los Angeles, California) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and music arranger.
Background
Martin was active principally as an arranger for some ...
. Garland's performance of the song in ''
A Star is Born'' is unusual for being filmed in one continuous shot. In the finished take, Garland (as Esther Blodgett) performs the song in a nightclub during a musicians-only session after closing time. The chairs are up on the tables for floor cleaning, the air is filled with cigarette smoke, and Garland's character, without an audience other than her musician friends, is encouraged by the pianist to rise from her seat on the piano bench and "take it from the top."
"The Man That Got Away" is arguably the most important single musical sequence in the entire film. As one of the first segments filmed for the movie, it was photographed in three costumes on three occasions, in over forty partial or complete takes. Judy Garland recorded the song on September 3, 1953, and the number was first filmed on Wednesday, October 21, 1953.
Due to technical limitations of the medium at the time, the cameraman could not give director
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head ...
what he wanted: "low light levels, the impressionistic feeling of the musical instruments, Garland moving in and out of pools of light," so he was fired. Cukor realized later that the film stock itself was the problem, not the cinematographer, and re-employed him in a number of other films later on.
Changes were then made to the costume and set and the number was filmed a second time the following Thursday, October 29. Art director
Gene Allen said, "The first time it looked as if we had painted a set to look like a bar. So to give it a slightly impressionistic look I...put a
scrim between the musicians and the back bar. If you look very carefully at that scene you can see the scrim nailed down on the floor..."
According to sound man Earl Bellamy: "When Judy sang to playback, you could never hear anything...She wanted me to start off at a full blast and then she topped that...her huge voice carrying out over the rafters. You could hear Judy clear as a bell, and she sang right with it..."
Garland did 27 takes of the number over three days, both partial and complete, but according to Allen, "Cukor had her doing all sorts of different bits of business before the song. All of that action didn't really fit the song though — it was just too busy. Plus, she didn't look good — her costume was wrinkled, and didn't fit right...." If that weren't enough, the color was too brown for her complexion as well.
Four months later it was filmed for a third time in February 1954, with new hairstyle and costume and a totally brand new set. Cukor felt this time they had finally got it right: "I think we've generated a lot of sex...She looks perfectly charming in a new Jean-Louis dress, and I know that this too is an enormous improvement over the way we first did it — it has fun and spirit."
Main principal photography for the film began in earnest around the first week of February, 1954. Ten days later, the number was filmed in Technicolor and CinemaScope. As a result of the fabulous color renditions and faithful representations of the sweeping views,
Jack L. Warner
Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's career spanned some ...
and Producer
Sid Luft
Michael Sidney Luft (November 2, 1915 – September 15, 2005) was an American show business figure, the second husband of actress Lynn Bari, and later the third husband of actress and singer Judy Garland.
Early life
Luft was born in New Yor ...
agreed to scrap nearly two weeks of footage to date and began the film again. The original takes are added as a special feature on the currently available DVD.
Garland later sang this song as a regular part of her concert repertoire for the rest of her career as well as on the ''Sammy Davis Jr. Show'' in 1966.
2019 dance version
In November 2019,
Universal Records
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...
issued a new dance/club version of the song, which was remixed by
Eric Kupper
Eric Kupper is an American keyboardist, arranger, songwriter, remix artist, DJ, and record producer of French descent.
Biography
Eric Kupper began playing in bands in his formative years, and got his real start in the mid-1980s working as a keybo ...
and as such, both Garland and Kupper received billing on the single. The track also gave Garland her first posthumous appearance on the ''Billboard''
Dance Club Songs
Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...
chart, debuting at number 41 in the November 9, 2019 issue.
Chart positions
Covers
*The song has occasionally been sung as "The ''Gal'' That Got Away" by male singers such as
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
,
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birth ...
,
Sammy Davis Jr.
Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director.
At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...
and
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American musician and actor. He performed jazz, Pop music, pop, rock and roll, Folk music, folk, Swing music, swing, and country music.
He started his car ...
.
*
Clare Fischer
Douglas Clare Fischer (October 22, 1928 – January 26, 2012) was an American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. After graduating from Michigan State University (from which, five decades later, he would receive an honorary doctorat ...
's novel arrangement (recorded June 1960, released February 1962), scored for strings, harp, and a jazz quartet led by vibraphonist
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. ( ; July 16, 1925 – May 5, 1982) was an American Latin Jazz musician, known as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, even as he continued to perform music of Afro-Jazz, ...
, was one of the highlights of ''
Cal Tjader Plays Harold Arlen
''Cal Tjader Plays Harold Arlen'' is an album by American vibraphonist Cal Tjader, five of its 11 tracks arranged by Tjader's longtime colleague Clare Fischer. Recorded in June 1960 Album notes for 2002 CD re-issue, ''Cal Tjader Plays Harold Arl ...
'', the earliest recorded document of Tjader's and Fischer's longstanding association.
*
Jeff Buckley
Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by ...
frequently performed the song (under its original title) on his last tour before his death in 1997. His live performance of the song at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco made it on to his posthumous album ''
Mystery White Boy
''Mystery White Boy'' is a live album by American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley released in 2000 (see 2000 in music). This is a compilation of live recordings that Buckley's mother Mary Guibert compiled from DAT recordings of his supporting to ...
'' in 2000.
*
Audra McDonald
Audra Ann McDonald (born July 3, 1970) is an American actress and singer. Primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage, she has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win in all four act ...
also sang a version, which is on her album ''
How Glory Goes
''How Glory Goes'' is the second album from Audra McDonald, released in 2000. Unlike her debut album ''Way Back to Paradise'', which featured songs from younger composers, this album contains a mixture of new and old songs, mostly from musical t ...
''.
*
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers List ...
sang a version on her 1993-94 concert tour, publicly dedicating her rendition to Garland's memory.
*The song was covered by
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
on her album ''Jazz at the Philharmonic, The Ella Fitzgerald Set'', in a recording featuring
Ray Brown on bass. She recorded it again for
Verve
Verve may refer to:
Music
* The Verve, an English rock band
* ''The Verve E.P.'', a 1992 EP by The Verve
* ''Verve'' (R. Stevie Moore album)
* Verve Records, an American jazz record label
Businesses
* Verve Coffee Roasters, an American coffee ho ...
on her double-album ''
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook
''Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book'' is a 1961 (see 1961 in music) album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with a studio orchestra conducted and arranged by Billy May. This album marked the only time that Fitzgerald wo ...
'' (1961).
*
Jim Bailey sang the song as Garland on ''
The Ed Sullivan Show
''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...
'' in 1970 and retained the song in his repertoire.
*
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and composer. He has recorded 10 studio albums and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written two classical operas and set ...
performed it in his tribute revues of Garland's best known songs, recorded on the live album ''
Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall
''Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall'' is the sixth album (and first live album) by the Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, released through Geffen Records in December 2007. The album consists of live recordings from his sold-out ...
'' (2007).
*
Maria Friedman
Maria Friedman ( Freedman; born 19 March 1960) is a British actress and director of stage and screen, best known for her work in musical theatre.
She is an eight-time Olivier Award nominee, winning three. Her first win was for her 1994 one-w ...
covered the song on her self-titled album, which was reissued in the U.S. under the title ''Now & Then''.
*
Cher
Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...
recorded the song for her album ''
Bittersweet White Light
''Bittersweet White Light'' is the ninth studio album by American singer Cher. The album was released in April 1973 by MCA. It was the last solo Cher album to be produced by then-performing partner and husband Sonny Bono. While many fans conside ...
'' (1973).
*
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey (; born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer. Best known for her career longevity, powerful voice and recording the theme songs to three James Bond films, Bassey is widely regarded as one of the most popular vocalists ...
recorded the song for her album ''
The Fabulous Shirley Bassey'' (1959).
*
Sheena Easton
Sheena Shirley Easton (; born 27 April 1959) is a Scottish singer and actress. Easton came into the public eye in an episode of the first British musical reality television programme '' The Big Time: Pop Singer'', which recorded her attempts to ...
also included a rather freeform rendition of the song on her album ''
No Strings
''No Strings'' is a musical drama with book by Samuel A. Taylor and words and music by Richard Rodgers. ''No Strings'' is the only Broadway score for which Rodgers wrote both lyrics and music, and the first musical he composed after the death of ...
'' (1993).
*
Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974) is an American actress and film producer. She first became known in 1992 for her role on the television series '' Camp Wilder'' and made her film debut with a minor role in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1992 ...
sings along with Garland while watching a DVD of the original movie during her lonely 30th birthday in the 2007 romantic comedy ''
P.S. I Love You''.
*In 2008 on the
BBC-TV show ''
I'd Do Anything'',
Jessie Buckley
Jessie Buckley (born 28 December 1989) is an Irish actress and singer. The recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and three BAFTA Awards, she was listed at number 38 on ''The Irish Times'' list of ...
sang this song.
Andrew Lloyd Webber described it as "the best performance by a girl your age I have ever heard".
*
Lorna Luft
Lorna Luft (born November 21, 1952) is an American actress, author, and singer. She is the daughter of Judy Garland and Sidney Luft and the half-sister of Liza Minnelli.
Early life
Luft was born on November 21, 1952, at Saint John's Health Cent ...
(Garland's daughter from her marriage with
Sid Luft
Michael Sidney Luft (November 2, 1915 – September 15, 2005) was an American show business figure, the second husband of actress Lynn Bari, and later the third husband of actress and singer Judy Garland.
Early life
Luft was born in New Yor ...
) also sings the song on her album ''Songs My Mother Taught Me''. She also sings it in concert from time to time.
*
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as ...
and her band
Hole
A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...
performed the song in concert on more than one occasion during their 2010 tour.
*
Sylvia Brooks
Sylvia Brooks is an American jazz singer and songwriter.
Sylvia Brooks started her career in classical theatre, having studied at The American Conservatory Theater under the direction of Allen Fletcher and Bill Ball.
In 2009, Brooks began sing ...
recorded this song on her album ''
Dangerous Liaisons
''Dangerous Liaisons'' is a 1988 American period romantic drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton, based on his 1985 play '' Les liaisons dangereuses'', itself adapted from the 1782 French novel of the s ...
'' (2009).
*
Idina Menzel
Idina Kim Menzel ( ; ; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer. Particularly known for her work in musicals on the Broadway stage and having achieved mainstream success across stage, film and music, Menzel has garnered the honorif ...
sang this song during her Spring 2009 tour promoting her album ''
I Stand''.
*
Raul Esparza
Raul, Raúl and Raül are the Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan forms of the Anglo-Germanic given name Ralph or Rudolph. They are cognates of the French Raoul.
Raul, Raúl or Raül may re ...
sang a moving rendition without changing the gender, leaving the lyric as "man", at the February 22, 2010
Broadway Backwards 5 benefit for NYC's Lesbian & Gay Community Center AND
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) is an American nonprofit organization that raises funds for AIDS-related causes across the United States, headquartered in New York City. It is the theatre community's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. ...
.
*On May 1, 2010, on the BBC TV show ''
Over the Rainbow'',
Lauren Samuels
Lauren Alvarado (born 26 March 1988) is an English singer/actress who performs under the stage name "Lauren Samuels". She became well known to the British public as a contestant on the 2010 BBC UK TV series '' Over the Rainbow''. Since appearing ...
sang this song.
Andrew Lloyd Webber said she made the song her own.
*
sang the song on her
Coming Home Tour.
*Billy Porter sang the song on ''
Pose
Human positions refer to the different physical configurations that the human body can take.
There are several synonyms that refer to human positioning, often used interchangeably, but having specific nuances of meaning.
*''Position'' is a gen ...
'' while performing in an AIDS Cabaret, without changing the gender, leaving the lyric as "man" in 2018.
* Elizabeth Gilles sings the song on ''
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...
'' while performing as a lounge singer in the imagined version of Liam Ridley’s dictated novel pitch in the episode “You See Most Things in Terms of Black & White” in 2020.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Man that Got Away, The
Judy Garland songs
Songs with music by Harold Arlen
Songs with lyrics by Ira Gershwin
1953 songs
Pop standards
Songs written for films
Torch songs
2019 songs
House music songs