Jitterbug Lyrics – Wizard Of Oz, The

Song Overview

“The Jitterbug (Outtake)” sits in Oz lore like a neon sticky note: filmed, rehearsed, scored - then snipped. On the The Wizard of Oz (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Deluxe Edition] you hear Judy Garland with Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Buddy Ebsen, and Bert Lahr sparring with a swingy pest that makes everyone dance. It is a song built for frenzy and plot sabotage, an upbeat detour that the studio decided the film did not need - and, depending on who you ask, could have dated.

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. Outtake from the 1939 film - recorded with the principal quartet and cut prior to release.
2. Music by Harold Arlen, lyric by E. Y. Harburg; the bug is a Witch-sent agent that forces frantic dancing.
3. Heard on deluxe soundtrack releases and archival uploads; filmed sequence survives only in fragments and set footage.
4. Reintroduced theatrically in some stage adaptations, where it lands between the forest and castle beats.
5. Funkier, jazz-skipping energy than most Oz cues - a side door into late-30s dance crazes.

As audio, it pops like seltzer: chromatic mischief in the woodwinds, slap-happy brass kicks, and a lyric that sprints on internal rhymes. Garland rides it with that quicksilver diction, while the fellows volley call-and-response gags. You can hear the staging impulse baked in - a vaudevillian scare gag bent toward jitter-era swing. According to one studio summary, it surfaces on modern releases as a stand-alone archival cut, the kind that reshapes how you imagine the scene’s tempo.

Creation History

The number was written in 1938 as a Witch-engineered trap. The production rehearsed and filmed an extended dance-and-chase, then removed it in previews, aiming to tighten pacing and avoid pinning the film to a fad. Later restorations brought the song back to disc - and in the theater, the RSC-style stage adaptation folded it in as a full ensemble whirl. A 2009 label release even highlighted the “cut songs” angle as a selling point, proof that lost scenes have long afterlives. As stated in a recent trade piece, the practical reason was blunt: time and tone.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

On the road to the Witch’s lair, Dorothy and friends hear a buzz, panic, then blame a phantom creature - the Jitterbug. The bug’s bite makes you dance yourself silly. In the planned sequence, the quartet would be worn down by a musical ambush, leaving them ripe for the flying monkeys to nab. It’s a comedy-of-terror device: slapstick that sets up a darker turn.

Song Meaning

The lyric turns anxiety into choreography. The Jitterbug is a personified fad and a witchy weapon, nudging the heroes into helpless motion. It lampoons the era’s dance craze while dramatizing human vulnerability: even brave travelers can be thrown off by spectacle. In story terms, it is the last playful beat before the tone drops into capture and captivity.

Annotations

“The Jitterbug is a tool of the Wicked Witch of the West - a blue and pink insect... its bite causes a person to break into a frenetic dance.”

Right - the bug is both gag and plot device. The color-coding and “mosquito” logic keep it fairy-tale simple, while the effect is pure Broadway kinetics.

“The six-minute sequence took fully five weeks to rehearse and film, at a cost of $80,000.”

That figure tracks with studio-era overbuilding. It also explains why the cut stings - weeks of work gone - but makes sense if the scene dated the movie or stalled momentum.

“I haven’t got a brain, but I think I ought to worry.”

A neat Harburg joke: the Scarecrow’s self-diagnosed worry proves he has the instincts his quest says he lacks.

“I haven’t got a heart, but I got a palpitation.”

Tin Man’s line flips physiology into wordplay. No heart, yet symptoms - a tidy comic paradox.

“Thar’ she blows.”

Collectors often point out that the surviving audio captures Buddy Ebsen’s voice in the mix - a ghost of the original Tin Man still echoing through certain ensemble lines elsewhere in the score.

Style, rhythm, instrumentation

Late-30s swing with theatrical polish. Think reed-section chatter, brass stabs on laugh lines, walking bass under chorus riffs. The groove is jitter-ready - buoyant 2-feel sliding to 4-feel - a musical cue to lose control in style.

Key Facts

• Artist: Judy Garland, Marilee Bradford, Bradley Flanagan
• Featured performers: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Buddy Ebsen, Bert Lahr
• Composer: Harold Arlen
• Lyricist: E. Y. Harburg
• Producers: Marilee Bradford; Bradley Flanagan (archival release supervision)
• Release Date: August 25, 1939 (film year); modern Deluxe Edition release promoted in 2009
• Album: The Wizard of Oz (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Deluxe Edition] - track 39 in expanded sequencing
• Label: Rhino/Warner Strategic Marketing for Deluxe Edition; WaterTower Music for current digital catalog
• Genre: Musicals - swing-inflected show tune
• Length: 3:23
• Instruments: studio orchestra with reeds, brass, rhythm section
• Mood: zippy, mischievous, anxious-comic
• Language: English
• Music style: swing chorus with patter quips and call-and-response
• Poetic meter: jaunty anapests and trochaic kicks typical of listy comic numbers

Canonical Entities & Relations

Questions and Answers

Why was “The Jitterbug” cut if they spent so much time on it?

Running time and tone. The scene risked dating the film to a fad and undercut the darker castle sequence that follows.

Does any of the filmed number survive?

No complete on-screen sequence. There are audio masters, stills, rehearsal snippets, and behind-the-scenes home-movie fragments that sketch what it looked like.

Is the outtake on the modern soundtrack?

Yes - deluxe editions present the song, sometimes alongside an “attack” underscore and related cues.

Who actually sings the Tin Man lines on the archival track?

Buddy Ebsen is audible in the session material. He was replaced on camera by Jack Haley but his vocals can be heard in some ensemble cues elsewhere too.

Where would the number fall in the film’s story?

Just before the flying-monkey capture, in the haunted-forest stretch outside the Witch’s castle.

Do stage versions use it?

Several licensed stage adaptations, especially the RSC-flavored edition, place “The Jitterbug” back in the score as a big ensemble turn.

What does the lyric add thematically?

It literalizes fear as uncontrollable motion. The heroes are puppeted by a trend-shaped insect - spectacle weaponized.

Any recordings beyond the film sessions?

There are archival releases and label uploads. You’ll also find era-appropriate studio covers and later cast recordings that nod to the tune.

Awards and Chart Positions

No specific single chart entries or awards for the outtake itself. Its wider cultural footprint comes through the film’s accolades and the popularity of the restored soundtrack packages that showcase cut material.

Additional Info

The pre-recording date most often cited lands in early October 1938, with further work that December on MGM’s Culver City stages. The cost and five-week rehearsal-filming window circulate in studio histories, and you can feel that ambition in the orchestration - this was a full-production gag, not a tossed-off filler. Rhino’s 2009 press notes explicitly pitched the Deluxe Edition on the strength of the “cut songs,” while newer uploads run under WaterTower’s banner. Collider’s 2024 look-back echoed the long-standing rationale: fun number, wrong vibe for the last act. A small, fascinating footnote: even after Jack Haley replaced Buddy Ebsen on camera, traces of Ebsen’s voice linger in group vocals elsewhere - the soundtrack is a palimpsest.

Sources: Rhino Records press release, WaterTower Music, Collider, Oz production histories, Concord Theatricals, Wikipedia film and stage entries, Spotify.