Moon River

This article refers to the song "Moon River". For other references, see Moon River (disambiguation).

"Moon River" is a song composed by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini in 1961. It was sung in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's by Audrey Hepburn, the movie's star, while the song itself won that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song for Mercer and Mancini. The success of the song was responsible for re-launching Mercer's career as a songwriter, which had stalled in the mid-1950s as rock and roll replaced jazz standards as the popular music of the time.

Mercer and Mancini originally wrote the song for Hepburn to fit the actress' vocal range. "Moon River" is introduced by Hepburn during the sequence where George Peppard's character, Paul 'Fred' Varjak, discovers Holly Golightly (Hepburn) singing (with guitar in hand) on the fire escape outside their apartments.

Originally, Mercer wrote this with lyrics that started, "I'm Holly, like I want to be, like Holly on a tree back home. ..." but later changed them to fit the movie's theme.

Although an original score album to Breakfast at Tiffany's was released, it did not contain Hepburn's original version. Instead, an album version recorded by Mancini and his chorus was released as a single and became a Top 40 hit.

Subsequently, it was released by South African singer Danny Williams, who got a number one hit on the UK charts. Shortly thereafter, Andy Williams (no relation) famously recorded the song, and made it his theme song. Jerry Butler recorded the song, which became a hit in the US in 1961. Many other artists have also covered the song, including Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Perry Como, Louis Armstrong, Paul Anka, Sarah Vaughan, Sarah Brightman, Billy Eckstine, Liz Callaway, Westlife, The Afghan Whigs, Morrissey, R.E.M., Judy Garland, Patsy Ann Noble, Victoria Williams, Barbra Streisand, Bradley Joseph, The Innocence Mission, Ania Dąbrowska, James Last and Andrea Ross.

It was only months after Hepburn's death in 1993 that the original version was finally released on an album called "Music from the Films of Audrey Hepburn." Despite the two Williams' success with the song, for many, Hepburn's simple recording is considered the most poignant.

An inlet near Savannah, Georgia, Johnny Mercer's hometown, was named "Moon River" in honor of this song. Andy Williams later named his production company and venue in Branson, Missouri after this song.

Lyrics:

Moon River, wider than a mile,

I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
Wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world;
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end,
Waiting 'round the bend,
My huckleberry friend,

Moon River and me.

Trivia

• "Huckleberry friend" reference: In the film, Holly and Paul perform some petty shoplifting at a five and dime store, stealing a pair of plastic Halloween masks. Contrary to popular belief, Paul's mask is not that of Huckleberry Hound. His mask is a generic dog mask, as Holly's is a generic cat mask. However, the first mask Holly picks up from the bin is of Huckleberry Hound (followed by a scarecrow mask, before settling for the cat mask). It could also be seen as a reference to Huckleberry Finn, the Mark Twain character who drifts down the Mississippi River on a raft, headed to a better place.
• Mancini often told of the behind-the-scenes drama that erupted when studio bosses suggested deleting the song from the film. Hepburn's reaction has been described by Mancini and others in degrees varying from her saying "over my dead body" to her using somewhat more colorful language to make the same point.
• Jennifer Love Hewitt performs the song in the biopic The Audrey Hepburn Story in which Hewitt portrays the actress. Hewitt is also a professional singer.
• The song is humorously used in the 1985 film Fletch when the lead character, portrayed by Chevy Chase, starts singing the song as he is given a rectal examination.
• The song makes a similar appearance in an episode of Family Matters; Steve Urkel sings it to Carl Winslow while the latter is in the hospital after being shot in the derriere.
• Perhaps one of the best renditions of "Moon River" was performed by Anwar Robinson on American Idol during the 2005 season.
• Sarah Brightman sings Moon River as a hidden track on her La Luna album.
• Canadian turntablist Kid Koala has performed a live remix of "Moon River" as part of his sets for the past couple years, playing two copies of the record slightly out of sync. A video of such a performance is available courtesy of BBC's Collective website.
• The Andy Williams version is featured in the final episode of season four, "I Heart NY", of the series Sex and the City. Carrie and Big slow dance to the song in his apartment. The Mancini chorus version plays to close the episode. It is also available on the Sex and the City Official Soundtrack album.
• In The Simpsons episode "Bart on the Road," it is revealed that Nelson Muntz is an Andy Williams fan. Nelson forces the gang to make a detour to Branson so he can see his idol. The bully is reduced to tears as Williams performs an encore of "Moon River."
• An elevator music version is featured in the 2002 film Minority Report.
• The song is sung with a guitar accompaniment by the main character in a pivotal scene of the 2004 film La Mala educación (Bad Education) directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The song lyrics are sung in Spanish.
• The song makes an appearance in the Japanese anime, Honey and Clover. It is Mayama's cell ringtone for when Rika calls. Morita also parodies the tune in a couple cases.
• The song was also the theme song of the hit Korean TV Series Lovers in Paris, where the chorus version was played when Kijoo (Carlo in the Filipino dub) told Taeyoung (Vivian) that he doesn't care what other would say about their love affair.*
• The song was played in a fantastical dance sequence involving Prior Walter and Louis Ironson in the Pulitzer Prize winning play Angels in America.
• The song was chosen as the wake-up call on day 2 of the STS-115 mission for Commander Brent Jett.
• The song is played in the 1989 film Born on the Fourth of July during the dance scene between Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise) and Donna (Kyra Sedgwick). Later in the film, Ron tells her that it was the most memorable thing he remembers back in high school and proceeds to sing the chorus to her.
• Chris Berman of ESPN sings part of the song often when there is a highlight featuring San Diego Chargers' quarterback Philip Rivers.
• A later Blake Edwards film, Curse of the Pink Panther features the Surete's main computer humming a backwards version of the song as a result of Dreyfus tampering with its programming.
• The video "Moon River" from the debut album of Andrea Ross features the Piscataqua River and was filmed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
• Susan Sarandon's character in the 2005 film Elizabethtown tap dances to an instrumental version of "Moon River" as a tribute to her on-screen husband, played by Tim Devitt.
• This song helped provoke the famous Wagenseller v. Scottsdale Memorial Hospital case in which a nurse was fired for refusing to indecently expose herself by mooning.
• The song appears in the Season Four Finale of Sex and the City titled I Heart NY. Mr. Big plays the song for Carrie when she stops by one night and she learns he is moving to Napa. He then leaves her the album in case "she gets lonely". The instrumental version of the song is played at the end while Carrie reflects on the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. This is one of many examples people use connecting Carrie to Holly from Breakfast in Tiffany's.
• In 2007, a midi like version of the song is used on a MasterCard commercial named "That would go great with that!" which shows a girl shopping in New York -- including a brief moment of window shopping at, appropriately, Tiffany’s.

External Link

• Fan site with different covers of the song