"The Man That Got Away" was written by Harold Arlen (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the 1954 remake of A Star Is Born, where Judy Garland sings it as Esther Blodgett in an after-hours club scene. The scene is considered one of the film's most crucial moments, the point where she shows star quality. Moss Hart's script asked for a dive song, and Gershwin fitted lyrics to a tune Arlen had begun from an unfinished song with Johnny Mercer. Gershwin's short, stressed couplets are marked to be sung slowly, with a steady insistence. The title paraphrases a fisherman's boast about a bigger catch that escaped.
Garland recorded it in September 1953 with Ray Heindorf conducting, and Ronald Haver regards the Heindorf and Skip Martin arrangement as the best the song has received. The scene was shot in one continuous take under George Cukor after reshoots. The song was nominated for Best Original Song at the 27th Academy Awards and lost to "Three Coins in the Fountain". AFI ranked it 11th on its 100 Years...100 Songs list. Garland sang it for the rest of her career, and it is regarded as an apotheosis of the torch song.
