Following the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Apr. 8, 2013, the recording of “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” (music by Harold Arlen, lyric by Yip Harburg) from the soundtrack of the 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz became an overnight best seller in the United Kingdom after a social media campaign by anti-Thatcher activists to download the song as a form of protest against her policies. Ernie Harburg, Yip’s son, issued a statement about this matter which was reprinted in Robert Mackey’s New York Times blog. Coincidentally, Thatcher died on Yip’s 117th birthday.
