People only just realising where they’ve heard ‘Defying Gravity’ notes before

If you’re a fan of the Wizard of Oz and Wicked, then you might know this tidbit already, but many fans of the Broadway-turned-film adaptation are just realising where they’ve heard the 'Defying Gravity' notes before.

The 2024 film has more than exceeded expectations, and with Cynthia Erivo playing Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, it’s no surprise that the music is also a hit with fans of the original.

But did you know that the iconic 'Defying Gravity' song includes a nod to its Oz counterpart?

I bet you didn't.

Of course, we’ve all seen the 1939 flick which stars Judy Garland in the role of Dorothy Gale.

The poor farm girl ends up fleeing a tornado by taking shelter in her home, only for it to be caught up in the whirlwind and transported to an unknown land.

Wicked's most famous song was inspired by another production (Universal Pictures)

That’s when Dorothy and her dog, Toto, take to the yellow brick road and find a lion, a tiger, and a bear, oh my!

Joking.

She finds a lion, a scarecrow, and a tin man who accompany her on her journey to Oz, where she meets Glinda, The Good Witch, and Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of The West.

Through her traumatic encounter with the latter, she is attacked by flying monkeys and whatever else before finally being able to meet Oz, who grants her wish and allows her to go home.

Anyway, a very important song within that film is 'Over The Rainbow'.

But little did you know that the first seven chords in the Unlimited theme in 'Defying Gravity'' is taken from that hit.

Stephen Schwartz composed the Wicked musical and created what is now known as the Unlimited theme in the hit song.

This is based on the meshing together of two primary themes in the score, which was an accompaniment to 'As Long As You're Mine'.

He wrote it early on in the process, and decided to pepper his score with homages to Harold Arlen, the music writer for The Wizard of Oz.

Schwartz explained as per Musical Schwartz: "What I thought was amusing (and I wondered if people would get it, and of course people did), is that it's the first seven notes of 'Over the Rainbow'."

Dorothy's biggest song was inspiration for Defying Gravity (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images)

That’s when played from the section from The Wizard and I with the lyrics ‘Un-li-mi-ted, my fu-ture...’

Schwartz continued: "The reason that that's a joke is because according to copyright law, when you get to the eighth note, then people can come and say, 'Oh you stole our tune.' And of course obviously it's also disguised in that it's completely different rhythmically.

“And it's also harmonized completely differently so that it's not [he plays the familiar opening phrase]...It's over a different chord and so on, but still it's the first seven notes of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'."

Many fans were not privvy to this bit of history and were shocked to learn about it.

One person wrote: “’Somewhere Over The Rainbow being sneaked into Defying Gravity is insaneeee.”

Someone else said: “thinking about how Somewhere Over The Rainbow is woven into Defying Gravity… Stephen Schwartz bestie what the hell.”

Another commented: “I just exploded from this information.”

You learn something new every day.

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