Over The Rainbow, Beyond The Grave

A few years ago, my boss ran into my office. The soundtrack to the movie 'Meet Joe Black' (one of my wife's least favourite films) was racing out of the shops. "There's something on that record that is connecting with people in an incredible way. Find out what it is ..." or words to that effect.

We looked, listened and concluded that it was Thomas Newman's beautiful 'Whisper to a Thrill' which was, by coincidence, being used on a TV ad for teaching. You'd recognise it immediately. As it happens, we backed the wrong horse. We didn't spot a recording of 'Over the Rainbow' by a man with an unpronounceable name tucked at the end of the soundtrack.

Forward wind a few years and '50 First Dates' comes out. This time, 'Over the Rainbow' by the same man with the unpronounceable name appears in the iTunes charts. Few tracks seem to touch listeners so immediately.

If you listen to this recording, you'll realise that you somehow know it, even if you've never seen those films or heard of the singer. The opening of the track is unmistakeable. A strummed groove on the Ukulele and the 'ooohs' of a beautiful, smooth tenor voice. Then, a heartfelt, poignant rendition of the song. It stops you in your tracks. You feel calm. You stop and the world feels a bit more peaceful for a few minutes. You can almost feel the heat coming from the embers of that final campfire of the summer.

During the season finale of Glee, the cast performed their version of 'Over the Rainbow' and it wasn't Julie Garland's or Eva Cassidy's versions they covered. It was a cover of the recording that had captivated viewers of 'Meet Joe Black' and '50 First Dates'. Glee covered Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's recording of the song and, sure enough, the next day, it was lodged right at the top of the download charts.

Even more recently, the track appeared on an advert in Germany and has since spent an amazing nine weeks at No.1 in the singles chart. That’s a man with a Ukulele, recorded over a decade ago lodged at the top of the singles charts ahead of Rihanna, The Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars etc. etc.

I've never seen a track as potent. People hear it and immediately want to own a copy.

This recording has two stories to tell. The first, briefly, is the extraordinary ability of the song Over The Rainbow to re-emerge into our lives in different ways and on a regular basis.

The second, more intriguingly, is the bond that this track has with singers who died tragically young. Moreover, Iz (as he is known), like Eva Cassidy before him, has only risen to widespread public affection through this song and after his death.

I find it amazing to think how this track, recorded in one take the early hours of a morning towards the end of Israel's life has travelled and travelled without a whiff of hype. It must have first touched those who knew and loved Iz. They must have played it to their friends who, in turn, passed on their secret. No big marketing campaigns here. Just the power of a song and the most powerful promotional tool there is - word of mouth. Somehow the track got to Hollywood and someone recognised its emotional power.

This word of mouth journey has led to one of the most downloaded songs of the past decade, a number one single around the world and over 5 million sales. And, it feels like the journey is by no means over.

It is important to reinforce that this is not been because it has been rammed down our throats by marketing money. It is because there is something within the recording - the simplicity and spontaneity of its performance and its inherent tragedy - that goes straight to your heart. It wasn't planned or researched. No-one tampered with it, auto-tuned it or added a rhythm section. Thankfully, someone turned on the tape machine at 2am one morning in a studio in Hawaii over a decade ago and captured a magical performance from a singer who would soon die too young.

Amazingly, the stories of Iz and this recording have not yet been told in the UK. And, precious little of Iz's other music has been enjoyed by music lovers.

We recently ran one TV advert to announce the imminent release of Over The Rainbow, the first ever collection of Iz's greatest recordings. The sound bed to the advert was 30 seconds of Over the Rainbow and within an hour, the album showed a sales increase of the most ridiculous magnitude on one leading pre-release sales chart (37,000% if you must know). It's not out yet so we're talking about starting out from low numbers. Still, it's a benchmark the industry uses to gauge customer demand and no one has seen such a reaction from 30 seconds of music.

Since then the track has become the sound bed to the Lynx TV advert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A4aFf5W0bI) and has started enjoying UK radio rotation.

It's impossible to deconstruct what it is about the recording that makes it so magical. It just is. It's a very rare moment where stars have aligned - where the raw ingredients of an artist, a song, a sound, a producer, a moment, a performance, a tragedy and the response of listeners around the world have combined to create something of extraordinary power. It's like alchemy.