If I Only Had A Brain

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If I Only Had a Brain/Heart/Nerve Music by Harold Arlen (1905-1986) Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg (1896-1981) is a song in the movie The Wizard of Oz sung by the characters who meet Dorothy talking about what each character wants from the Wizard.

[edit] If I Only Had a Brain

The Scarecrow's version of the song is sung about getting a brain. The original recording included an extravagant dance routine with Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow), as choreographed by Busby Berkley but the dance was eventually cut in fear that it was too lengthy. Also cut was a closing vocal stanza to the number:

Gosh, it would be awful pleasin'
To reason out the reason
For things I can't explain.
Then perhaps I'll deserve ya
And be even worthy erv ya
If I only had a brain.

The sequence was eventually used as a segment in the 1985 film That's Dancing!.

Consideration was given to restoring it for the film's 1998 reissue, but Warner Bros. changed their minds, in the interest of not tampering with the classic film. However, it is included in the DVD extras.

[edit] If I Only Had a Heart

The Tin Man's version of the song, about getting a heart, is sung after he says "No heart. All hollow." In the song, a girl's voice (that of Adriana Caselotti, best known for playing the title role in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, even being listed as "Snow White's Voice" in the script) comes in singing "Wherefore art thou Romeo".

The song was first recorded by Buddy Ebsen, originally cast as the Tin Man until a makeup-induced illness forced him to withdraw. Although it was re-recorded by his replacement, Jack Haley, Ebsen's original recording survived and can be heard as one of many bonus tracks on the 1995 deluxe soundtrack release, as well as various home video/DVD releases from 1989-onward. Ebsen's version also contains the separately-recorded single line recited by Adriana Caselotti. Ebsen's voice also survives in the group vocal, We're Off to See the Wizard.

Ebsen performed his vocals in his natural voice. In his Tin Man portion of the film, Haley eschewed his own natural, somewhat raspy voice and both spoke and sang in a softened tone which he said was the tone he typically used when reading stories to his children.

[edit] If I Only Had the Nerve

The Cowardly Lion's version, about courage, is shorter, and is connected to We're Off to See the Wizard by a bridge saying "Then I'm sure to get a brain; a heart; a home; the nerve" (a longer version was written, but it was shortened in the interest of balance, since Bert Lahr was given a second musical number, If I Were King Of The Forest, later in the film).

Lahr's natural regional accent was exploited and emphasized for comic effect in this song, which includes several words that are pronounced in a stereotypically "Brooklynese" way: "voive" for "verve", "desoive" for "deserve", and "noive" for "nerve".