Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

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Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend is a song from 1949 from the Broadway - musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (English title. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ). The song was composed by Jule Styne , Leo Robin wrote the lyrics and Carol Channing sang it in the role of Lorelei Lee since it premiered on stage. The play was filmed by Howard Hawks in 1953, also preferred under the title Blondes . In the musical adaptation , Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend was sung by Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei.

Emergence

Joseph Fields wrote the text for the musical together with Anita Loos , from whom the novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes from 1925 came. Loos' novel was staged as a play in 1926 and turned into a silent film by Malcolm St. Clair in 1928 . The first performance of the musical took place in 1949 at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City . A revision of the musical with the title Lorelei (subtitle: Gentlemen Still Prefer Blondes ) took place in 1974. Carol Channing also took on the lead role here. In addition to the original songs, other pieces were also composed for this purpose.

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The song is about the fact that the French are happy to die for love and therefore like to duel. However, Lorelei would prefer a living man who would give her expensive jewels. Even a kiss on the hand can not replace diamonds with which one can pay the rent and afford beautiful things. And when you get old, lose your attractiveness, the men impoverish or return to their wives, you still have expensive gems. Therefore take care of wealth in good time. Because even in old age, with a stiff back and stiff knees, you can still go to Tiffanys with your head held high . Hence, diamonds are a girl's best friends.

Musical version

Like the novel, the musical is set in the typical Charleston style in the 1920s . Carol Channing can be seen in the role of Lorelei Lee as a sex bomb, but with clearly ironic features, in the style of a flapper . Channing became a star with this role and due to the success of the song, she had numerous television appearances in addition to the stage. So she was seen in Milton Berle's The Buick Berle Show on NBC in 1953 and an appearance on The Rosemary Clooney Show in 1956 . In 1980 Channing then parodied the song on the Muppet Show in a duet with Miss Piggy .

The successful song was sung by Ethel Merman back in 1950 , who recorded the song on record. Rich Little parodied the song on the 1999 sitcom The Nanny and imitated Channing's vocals.

Movie version

In 1953 the musical was directed by Howard Hawks with the title Blondes Preferred . The main roles are Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei and Jane Russell as Dorothy. In contrast to the musical, the film is set in the 1950s. The original songs were used for the film music, but slightly modified by the performing musicians Leigh Harline , Lionel Newman , Hal Schaefer and Herbert W. Spencer . For example, an orchestral melody and a number of sung “ No ” were added to Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend at the beginning of the song . Monroe needed support from the soprano Marni Nixon in two passages . The line of text "These rocks don't lose their shape, diamonds are a girl's best friend" and the several high "No" at the beginning of the song were dubbed by Nixon. At the end of the film, film partner Jane Russell disguised as Lorelei sang the song again in the scene in the courtroom.

Marilyn Monroe also performed the song several times in 1954 during her USO concert tour for the soldiers of the 3rd US Infantry Division in South Korea .

Arrangements

Cover versions

The success of the film made the song scene and the red film set with Monroe's pink dress designed by William Travilla world famous. The American Film Institute voted the song # 12 of America's 100 Best Movie Songs . Monroe's interpretation of Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend was imitated by various artists and bands in the following period:

  • Kylie Minogue sang the song for the first time in 1995. In 1999 she gave a performance as Monroe for the opening of the Australian studios of 20th Century Fox . In 2007 she released another version for her documentary White Diamond: A Personal Portrait of Kylie Minogue .
  • Anna Nicole Smith recorded the song in 1998. The single reached the top 100 of the French dance charts. In 2004 she costumed as Monroe in the anti-fur campaign Gentlemen Prefer Fur-Free Blondes for PETA .
  • In 2000, a Gothic-Rock version of the British pop rock band Rosetta Stone was featured on the sample album This Is Goth! under the title Rosetta Stone vs. Marilyn Monroe - Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend released.
  • In 2012 Blake Lively starred in the 100th episode of Gossip Girl in a dream sequence Marilyn Monroe and sings Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend .
  • Marilyn Monroe's version also suffered several parodies, such as B. 1993 by Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French , who disguised as Monroe and Russell imitated the piece of music in the BBC special Gentlemen Prefer French & Saunders . For example, in the cartoon series Hey Arnold! Monroe's performance was caricatured.
  • Also worth mentioning is the song Material Girl by Madonna in 1984, the music video in the production design and the costumes of Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend takes over.

"Sparkling Diamonds"

A new version of Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend was sung in 2001 in the film Moulin Rouge by Nicole Kidman under the title Sparkling Diamonds . Director Baz Luhrmann chose the new title and Craig Armstrong produced the song with partially changed lyrics. Some words have been replaced so that the lyrics fit the film plot and the time around 1900, when the film was created. Furthermore, the text and music passage "'Cause we are living in a material world and I am a material girl" was taken over from Madonna's song Material Girl .

Sparkling Diamonds was sung by the actresses in the television series Glee in the episode Girls (and Boys) On Film in 2013 .

Other versions

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lorelei in the Internet Broadway Database (IBDB)
  2. ↑ Siren on the Rocks , Time Magazine, accessed April 8, 2014
  3. ↑ fernsehserien.de
  4. ↑ recording of Ethel Merman at National Public Radio as a Windows Media Audio format
  5. ↑ The Nanny , Season 4, Episode 7 The pregnant dog ( The Taxman Cometh ) of 29 April 1999
  6. ^ Voice of the Many, but Rarely Herself , The New York Times, March 6, 2007, accessed April 8, 2014
  7. ^ PETA Campaign , May 2012, accessed April 8, 2014
  8. ↑ Rosetta Stone on Last.fm
  9. ↑ Swing Cats Remix on Last.fm
  10. ↑ Blake Lively channels Marilyn Monroe on "Gossip Girl" , CBS News from January 20, 2012 called, on April 8, 2014
  11. ↑ Lena Horne on Allmusic
  12. ↑ Della Reese on Last.fm
  13. ↑ Julie London on Last.fm
  14. ↑ Eartha Kitt on Discogs
  15. ↑ Emmylou Harris  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Allmusic@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.allmusic.com  
  16. ↑ Thalía in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  17. ↑ T-Bone Burnett's discography on his homepage
  18. ↑ Beyoncé Knowles on YouTube
  19. ↑ Nicole Scherzinger on Dailymotion
  20. ↑ The Puppini Sisters at universal-music.de