“Moon River” is a song composed by Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Henry Mancini (music) in 1961, for whom it won that year’s Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was originally sung in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Audrey Hepburn, although it has been covered by many other artists. The song also won the 1962 Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

Hepburn introduced 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 Richard 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 like Gordon Jenkins (whose album Manhattan Tower had been out fairly recently): “Marty [Jurow, co-producer] and I both said ‘over our dead bodies.'” According to Mancini and Edwards, a studio executive hated the song and demanded it be cut from the film; Hepburn, who was present, responded to the suggestion by standing up and saying, “Over my dead body!” 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.”

“ 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

It became the theme song for Andy Williams, who first recorded it in 1961 and performed it at the Academy Awards ceremonies in 1962. He sang the first eight bars at the beginning of his television show and also named his production company and venue in Branson, Missouri after it. Williams’ version was disliked by Cadence Records president Archie Bleyer, who believed it had little or no appeal to teenagers.[citation needed] Andy Williams’ version never charted, except as an LP track, which he recorded for Columbia in a hit album of 1962. The success of the song was responsible for re-launching Mercer’s career as a songwriter, which had stalled in the mid-1950s because rock and roll replaced jazz standards as the popular music of the time. An inlet near Savannah, Georgia, Johnny Mercer’s hometown, was named Moon River in honor of him and this song. The popularity of the song is such that it has been used as a test sample in a study on people’s memories of popular songs. Comments about the song have noted that it is particularly reminiscent of Mercer’s youth in the Southern United States.

By Audrey Hepburn

By Andy Williams

Lyrics