On this day, October 5, 1961, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was released.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, On This Day in Film and Television

1961 "Breakfast at Tiffany's" film, based on the novella by Truman Capote, directed by Blake Edwards, and starring Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, and Buddy Ebsen, premieres

Breakfast at Tiffany's (film)



Original theatrical release poster by Robert McGinnis

Directed by: Blake Edwards
Release date: October 5, 1961
Budget: $2.5 million
Box office: $14 million

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a 1961 American romantic comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, written by George Axelrod, adapted from Truman Capote's 1958 novella of the same name, and starring Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, a naïve, eccentric café society girl who falls in love with a struggling writer. It was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures on October 5, 1961, to critical and commercial success. In 2012 the film was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry.

{snip}

Music

Main article: Breakfast at Tiffany's: Music from the Motion Picture

It took me a long time to figure out what Holly Golightly was all about. One night after midnight I was still trying. I don't drink much, but I was sipping. And it came to me. I wrote ["Moon River"] in half an hour.

Henry Mancini

During the film, Hepburn sang the film's signature song, "Moon River" by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer. The song was tailored to Hepburn's limited vocal range, based on songs she had performed in 1957's Funny Face. On the Anniversary Edition DVD of Breakfast at Tiffany's, co-producer Dick Shepherd says in his audio commentary that after a preview in San Francisco, Martin Rankin, Paramount's head of production, wanted "Moon River" replaced with music by somebody else but "Marty [Jurow, co-producer] and I both said 'over our dead bodies,'" - a remark attributed to Hepburn herself in another account.

According to Time magazine, Mancini "sets off his melodies with a walking bass, extends them with choral and string variations, varies them with the brisk sounds of combo jazz. 'Moon River' is sobbed by a plaintive harmonica, repeated by strings, hummed and then sung by the chorus, finally resolved with the harmonica again."

The soundtrack featured a score composed and conducted by Henry Mancini, with songs by Mancini and lyricist Johnny Mercer. Mancini and Mercer won the 1961 Oscar for Best Original Song for "Moon River". Mancini won for Best Original Score. There are also unreleased score pieces from Breakfast at Tiffany's in existence; "Carousel Cue" is from an unsurfaced scene, while "Outtake 1" is from a deleted scene in which Holly and Fred visit Tiffany's and is a variation of the main theme.

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Breakfast at Tiffany's (3/9) Movie CLIP - Moon River (1961) HD
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CLIP DESCRIPTION:
Fred (George Peppard) hears Holly (Audrey Hepburn) singing on the fire escape below his apartment and goes out to listen.

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[Tomconroy]

1. I believe Andy Williams had the hit with Moon River

that came out before the movie was released.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Wikipedia says he first recorded it in 1962.

But yeah, I've heard his version many times.

Thanks.

{edited. Let's add the entry.}

Moon River

This article is about the song. For other uses, see Moon River (disambiguation).


Single by Henry Mancini & Orchestra
from the album Breakfast at Tiffany's: Music from the Motion Picture

B-side: "Breakfast at Tiffany's"
Released: October 1961
Recorded: 1960
Studio: RCA Music Center of the World, Hollywood, California
Genre: Pop
Length: 2:41
Label: RCA Victor
Composer(s): Henry Mancini
Lyricist(s): Johnny Mercer

"Moon River" is a song composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The song also won the 1962 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

The song has been covered by many other artists. It became the theme song for Andy Williams, who first recorded it in 1962 (and performed it at the Academy Awards ceremony that year). He sang the first eight bars of the song at the beginning of each episode of his eponymous television show and named his production company and venue in Branson, Missouri, after it; his autobiography is called "Moon River" and Me. Williams' version was never released as a single, but it charted as an LP track that he recorded for Columbia on a hit album of 1962, Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes.

The song's success was responsible for relaunching Mercer's career as a songwriter, which had stalled in the mid-1950s because rock and roll had replaced jazz standards as the popular music of the time. The song's popularity is such that it has been used as a test sample in a study on people's memories of popular songs.

Comments about the lyrics have noted that they are particularly reminiscent of Mercer's youth in the southern United States and his longing to expand his horizons. Robert Wright wrote in The Atlantic Monthly, "This is a love sung [sic] to wanderlust. Or a romantic song in which the romantic partner is the idea of romance."

An inlet near Savannah, Georgia, Johnny Mercer's hometown, was named Moon River in honor of him and this song.

{snip}

[Tomconroy]

3. I'm often wrong, as I'm sure many on DU would tell you!

I guess he just had the enormous hit album.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. And just the album. He never released it as a single.

Note to self: maybe spend a little less time on Wikipedia.