If you would like to hear a version of this song you will never, ever forget, I would suggest putting your sweaty little hands on Patti LaBelle, Live from November 10, 1992. She recorded this in New York, and I have never had a singer affect me with a song quite as much as she does on this record with her version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
The arrangement has a lot to do with it. It's that sort of bass-heavy orchestra, with pregnant pauses, that will send chills up your spine. The arrangement here was done by James R. Budd Ellison, and I'd like to shake his hand.
But it is the vocal work by Ms. LaBelle that will make you cry. Yes, even the hardest heart will find a moist spot near the corner of the eye when listening to this version of this song.
I dare you.