YouTube Gold: Willie Nelson Sings Somewhere Over The Rainbow

A masterful musician reinvents a masterful composition.

At a recent show, fans yelled gave an eight-minute standing ovation and chanted “Willie Forever!” at Willie Nelson, which apparently moved him deeply.

If it seems like he’s been around forever, well, he kind of has been.

Nelson wrote Crazy, made famous by Patsy Cline, in 1961. After writing songs for others, he began to focus more on his own career and when he left Nashville and went back home to Texas, he became iconic. His songs reached traditional country fans and hippies and he carved out an entirely unique role in music.

In 1978 he released Stardust, an interpretation of classic American standards, and despite skepticism, that was a smash hit. It also opened up a new path for Nelson, who has played classics ever since, once wryly noting that older fans enjoyed hearing them and younger fans thought he wrote them.

Here he plays Somewhere Over The Rainbow, the classic from The 1939 movie the Wizard of Oz. Judy Garland did a stunning version of her own and some songs (think My Way by Frank Sinatra) are just best left alone.

Nelson’s greatness is underscored by remaking this song into a down-home masterpiece. His version is melancholy, full of ache and beauty.

At 92, he certainly won’t be with us forever, but we’ll hopefully get a little more time before we have to let go. He’s utterly irreplaceable.