From Judy Garland to Adele, the stories behind 20 songs from musicals and films

More from this Series

• If I Were a Rich Man — indelibly associated with Topol, but it could have been Sinatra’s song

  The late singer spent a lifetime singing the tune from Fiddler on the Roof, though others expressed interest in the role

  
• Skyfall — Adele captured the essence of the James Bond song

  The singer and her co-writer Paul Epworth created an epic track with a secret ingredient

  
• When You Wish Upon a Star — the Disney song taps into a need for escapism

  The track from Pinocchio, now remade as a live-action film, has a yearning quality that has brought dozens of artists to cover it

  
• New York, New York — celebratory song that became a New Year favourite

  First sung by Liza Minnelli and popularised by Frank Sinatra, this paean to the city is bawled out at parties and in karaoke bars

  
• You’ll Never Walk Alone: from Broadway to Liverpool FC

  
• Urvasi Urvasi — feelgood song from a Tamil film that went global

  AR Rahman’s track was adapted by will.i.am as part of a trend for sampling and borrowing from Indian popular music by western artists

  
• Ol’ Man River — a powerful indictment of black oppression

  Paul Robeson sang the definitive version of this beautiful, rousing tune

  
• It Ain’t Necessarily So — the Gershwins at the top of their game

  With its brilliantly playful rhymes, Sportin’ Life’s sceptical song from Porgy and Bess has been covered and reinterpreted over the years

  
• Heaven on their Minds — how Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber sparked a storm

  Their musical Jesus Christ Superstar caused controversy, while its opening song has had a colourful afterlife

  
• Moon River — the song that was nearly cut from Breakfast at Tiffany’s

  
• Being Alive — how Stephen Sondheim’s song has acquired new meaning over the years

  
• Why ‘Let it Go’ is loved by prisoners and preschoolers alike

  Recorded in more than 40 languages, the song has spawned countless internet tributes — and parodies

  
• Alfie — Burt Bacharach described it as his favourite of all the songs he wrote

  
• The Life of a Song: ‘Mack the Knife’

  The global hit was first written for a musical that aimed to lay bare the hypocrisies of bourgeois morality