YouTube rabbit holes. We all know them. We all love them. (Mostly because we’re all a bunch of asshole procrastinators. Yeah, don’t deny it, buddy. It happens to the best of us.) One rainy afternoon, I fell and fell hard. I wasn’t searching for anything remotely close to Mandy Patinkin, that manly bearded wonder from Homeland and Dead Like Me, but some way, somehow I found this clip of Patinkin singing a Wizard of Oz classic on an 80’s episode of Letterman.

Later, I Googled to see if anyone else was as surprised as I was. Because man, Patinkin singing turn any frown upside down, or maybe even make a grown man cry. Even a man as manly as Saul Berenson. It turns out, Vulture fell down the same rabbit hole I did! For a storied recollection of the jubilant life of musical Mandy, click here, but for a small taste, check out the clip below and prepare to be wowed.

Mandy Patinkin. “Over The Rainbow” August 18, 1989. David Letterman

8.18.89 “If happy little bluebirds fly…” Mandy conjuring up heaven. at old studio. + [uploaded 1994 “Over The Rainbow”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSqnjUJsRck as well as others from the Mandy/Tony Randall Letterman trilogy in Ed Sullivan Theater. Swanee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcqxlVCfhtM

Best version ever? Up for debate.

Now if you’ll excuse me. It appears I have something in my eye.