Moon river
Moon River is a 1961 song written by Johnny Mercer and composed by Henry Mancini for the film Breakfast at Tiffany's , in which the song is sung by Audrey Hepburn . For this they received the Oscar for best film song in 1962 . The song is counted as a contribution to the Great American Songbook .
In the course of the success of Moon River, Mercer's career as a songwriter recovered , which had stalled in the mid- 1950s with the advent of rock and roll and the associated displacement of jazz as the most popular music genre .
The Moon River near Savannah, Georgia , Johnny Mercer's hometown, as well as the production company of Andy Williams , who recorded the song, were named after the song.
Versions
original
Mercer and Mancini wrote the song specifically for Audrey Hepburn to accommodate their vocal range . Originally the song began with the line “I'm Holly, like I want to be / like Holly on a tree back home.” The line was later changed due to the motif of the film. Although an instrumental version of the song can be heard at the beginning of the film, the text appears for the first time in the scene in which Paul "Fred" Varjak ( George Peppard ) discovers Holly Golightly ( Audrey Hepburn ) playing with her guitar at the window Fire escape sits and sings the song.
The expression "Huckleberry Friend" is a nostalgic allusion to Mercer's childhood when he and friends looked for blueberries by the river , which are known in American as "huckleberries". It is also a play on words with the name Huckleberry Finn from Mark Twain's novels .
The version of the song sung by Audrey Hepburn was not included in the original soundtrack of the film. Instead, Mancini recorded an album version that later became a chart hit. It reached number 11 on the US charts, where it was Mancini's second most successful recording. The original also hit the charts in Great Britain and Germany.
After Hepburn's death in 1993, her recording was released on the album Music from the Films of Audrey Hepburn .
Henry Mancini said of Audrey Hepburn: “ Moon River was written for you. Nobody else has ever understood it so well. There are more than a thousand versions of it, but yours is hands down the best. "
Interpretations
There were several other versions of Moon River as early as 1961 . The most successful was the South African Danny Williams , who reached number 1 in Great Britain. Jerry Butler was able to repeat Mancini's number 11 in the USA with his interpretation.
In addition, numerous other artists have published their own version of Moon River, including Louis Armstrong , Judy Garland , Karel Gott , James Last , Martin Böttcher , Katie Melua , Jim Reeves , Rumer , Morrissey , REM , Frank Sinatra , Frank Ocean , Barbra Streisand , Caterina Valente , Michael Hirte , Willie Nelson , Baby Doll , Elton John , the Puppini Sisters , Nils Landgren , Tommy Emmanuel and Jacob Collier . Best known today is the version by Andy Williams , which has also become his signature tune.
A Czech version, "Měsíční řeka", is known by several performers.
Web links
- Bernhard Vogel: Moon River. In: Sinatra - The Main Event. 2004 (the story of the song and the Sinatra reference).
Individual evidence
- ^ Moon River in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
- ↑ Sean Hepburn Ferrer: Audrey Hepburn - Melancholy and Grace. 6th edition, Henschel Verlag 2007, p. 109.