Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer "Moon River"
We're rewinding the clocks almost 60 years with this post today. Breakfast at Tiffany's is a classic romantic comedy that features Audrey Hepburn in what most consider her greatest role of all time. It won 2 Academy Awards, and remains iconic throughout cultural history. The soundtrack was successful in its own right, winning Henry Mancini Best Original Score at the 1962 Academy Awards. While the soundtrack only peaked at #27 on the early version of the Billboard Top 200, it remained on that chart for almost two years. All of the tracks on the soundtrack are original compositions by Henry Mancini. "Moon River" was the smash hit off of this soundtrack. That's amazing considering it almost didn't make the cut of the film. After a pre-screening, an executive from Paramount Pictures called the song dead weight, and wanted to cut it. It was saved by Hepburn herself, and "only" went on to win Best Original Song at the Academy Awards as well as winning Song of the Year at the 1962 Grammys. With it being the early age of Billboard charts, there is no surefire way to know exactly where the song was in terms of charts, but most people state that they believe it reached #1. While I understand I may be throwing it back to the prime music days for your grandparents, both Breakfast at Tiffany's and "Moon River" have survived this long for their cultural significance of the times. I encourage you to appreciate today's post for just that.
If you want to learn more about the soundtrack as well as view the track listing, click here
