Moon River - Muziek
Moon River by R.E.M.
R.E.M.
Biografie van de kunstenaar R.E.M.
R.E.M. Was An American Rock Band From Athens Georgia Formed In 1980 By Drummer Bill Berry Guitarist Peter Buck Bassist/backing Vocalist Mike Mills And Lead Vocalist Michael Stipe. One Of The First Alternative Rock Bands R.E.M. Was Noted For Buck's Ringing Arpeggiated Guitar Style Stipe's Distinctive Vocal Quality And Obscure Lyrics Mills's Melodic Basslines And Backing Vocals And Berry's Tight Economical Style Of Drumming. R.E.M. Released Its First Single—"Radio Free Europe"—in 1981 On The Independent Record Label Hib-Tone. The Single Was Followed By The Chronic Town EP In 1982 The Band's First Release On I.R.S. Records. In 1983 The Group Released Its Critically Acclaimed Debut Album Murmur And Built Its Reputation Over The Next Few Years Through Subsequent Releases Constant Touring And The Support Of College Radio. Following Years Of Underground Success R.E.M. Achieved A Mainstream Hit In 1987 With The Single "The One I Love". The Group Signed To Warner Bros. Records In 1988 And Began To Espouse Political And Environmental Concerns While Playing Large Arenas Worldwide. By The Early 1990s When Alternative Rock Began To Enter The Mainstream R.E.M. Was Viewed By Subsequent Acts Such As Nirvana And Pavement As A Pioneer Of The Genre. The Band Released Its Two Most Commercially Successful Albums Out Of Time 1991 And Automatic For The People 1992 Which Veered From The Band's Established Sound And Catapulted It To International Fame. R.E.M.'s 1994 Release Monster Was A Return To A More Rock-Oriented Sound But Still Continued Its Run Of Success. The Band Began Its First Tour In Six Years To Support The Album The Tour Was Marred By Medical Emergencies Suffered By Three Of The Band Members. In 1996 R.E.M. Re-Signed With Warner Bros. For A Reported US$80 Million At The Time The Most Expensive Recording Contract In History. Its 1996 Release New Adventures In Hi-Fi Though Critically Acclaimed Fared Worse Commercially Than Its Predecessors. The Following Year Bill Berry Left The Band While Stipe Buck And Mills Continued The Group As A Trio. Through Some Changes In Musical Style The Band Continued Its Career Into The Next Decade With Mixed Critical And Commercial Success Despite Having Sold More Than 85 Million Records Worldwide And Becoming One Of The World's Best-Selling Music Artists. In 2007 The Band Was Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame In Their First Year Of Eligibility. R.E.M. Disbanded Amicably In September 2011 Announcing The Split On Its Website. In January 1980 Michael Stipe Met Peter Buck In Wuxtry Records The Athens Record Store Where Buck Worked. The Pair Discovered That They Shared Similar Tastes In Music Particularly In Punk Rock And Protopunk Artists Like Patti Smith Television And The Velvet Underground. Stipe Said "It Turns Out That I Was Buying All The Records That Buck Was Saving For Himself." Through Mutual Friend Kathleen O'Brien Stipe And Buck Then Met Fellow University Of Georgia Students Mike Mills And Bill Berry Who Had Played Music Together Since High School And Lived Together In Georgia. The Quartet Agreed To Collaborate On Several Songs Stipe Later Commented That "there Was Never Any Grand Plan Behind Any Of It". Their Still-Unnamed Band Spent A Few Months Rehearsing In A Deconsecrated Episcopal Church In Athens And Played Its First Show On April 5 1980 Supporting The Side Effects At O'Brien's Birthday Party Held In The Same Church Performing A Mix Of Originals And 1960s And 1970s Covers. After Considering Twisted Kites Cans Of Piss And Negro Eyes The Band Settled On "R.E.M." Which Is An Initialism For Rapid Eye Movement The Dream Stage Of Sleep Which Stipe Selected At Random From A Dictionary. The Band Members Eventually Dropped Out Of School To Focus On Their Developing Group. They Found A Manager In Jefferson Holt A Record Store Clerk Who Was So Impressed By An R.E.M. Performance In His Hometown Of Chapel Hill North Carolina That He Moved To Athens. R.E.M.'s Success Was Almost Immediate In Athens And Surrounding Areas The Band Drew Progressively Larger Crowds For Shows Which Caused Some Resentment In The Athens Music Scene. Over The Next Year And A Half R.E.M. Toured Throughout The Southern United States. Touring Was Arduous Because A Touring Circuit For Alternative Rock Bands Did Not Then Exist. The Group Toured In An Old Blue Van Driven By Holt And Lived On A Food Allowance Of $2 Each Per Day. R.E.M. Was Pivotal In The Creation And Development Of The Alternative Rock Genre. AllMusic Stated "R.E.M. Mark The Point When Post-Punk Turned Into Alternative Rock." In The Early 1980s The Musical Style Of R.E.M. Stood In Contrast To The Post-Punk And New Wave Genres That Had Preceded It. Music Journalist Simon Reynolds Noted That The Post-Punk Movement Of The Late 1970s And Early 1980s "had Taken Whole Swaths Of Music Off The Menu" Particularly That Of The 1960s And That "After Postpunk's Demystification And New Pop's Schematics It Felt Liberating To Listen To Music Rooted In Mystical Awe And Blissed-Out Surrender." Reynolds Declared R.E.M. A Band That Recalled The Music Of The 1960s With Its "plangent Guitar Chimes And Folk-Styled Vocals" And Who "wistfully And Abstractly Conjured Visions And New Frontiers For America" One Of "the Two Most Important Alt-Rock Bands Of The Day." With The Release Of Murmur R.E.M. Had The Most Impact Musically And Commercially Of The Developing Alternative Genre's Early Groups Leaving In Its Wake A Number Of Jangle Pop Followers. R.E.M.'s Early Breakthrough Success Served As An Inspiration For Other Alternative Bands. Spin Referred To The "R.E.M. Model"—career Decisions That R.E.M. Made Which Set Guidelines For Other Underground Artists To Follow In Their Own Careers. Spin's Charles Aaron Wrote That By 1985 "They'd Shown How Far An Underground Punk-Inspired Rock Band Could Go Within The Industry Without Whoring Out Its Artistic Integrity In Any Obvious Way. They'd Figured Out How To Buy In Not Sellout-In Other Words They'd Achieved The American Bohemian Dream." Steve Wynn Of Dream Syndicate Said "They Invented A Whole New Ballgame For All Of The Other Bands To Follow Whether It Was Sonic Youth Or The Replacements Or Nirvana Or Butthole Surfers. R.E.M. Staked The Claim. Musically The Bands Did Different Things But R.E.M. Was First To Show Us You Can Be Big And Still Be Cool." Biographer David Buckley Stated That Between 1991 And 1994 A Period That Saw The Band Sell An Estimated 30 Million Albums R.E.M. "asserted Themselves As Rivals To U2 For The Title Of Biggest Rock Band In The World." Over The Course Of Its Career The Band Has Sold Over 85 Million Records Worldwide. Alternative Bands Such As Nirvana Pavement Radiohead Coldplay Pearl Jam The Band's Vocalist Eddie Vedder Inducted R.E.M. Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Live Have Drawn Inspiration From R.E.M.'s Music. "When I Was 15 Years Old In Richmond Virginia They Were A Very Important Part Of My Life " Pavement's Bob Nastanovich Said "as They Were For All The Members Of Our Band." Pavement's Contribution To The No Alternative Compilation 1993 Was "Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence" A Song About R.E.M.'s Early Days. Local H According To The Band's Twitter Account Created Their Name By Combining Two R.E.M. Songs "Oddfellows Local 151" And "Swan Swan H". Kurt Cobain Of Nirvana Was A Fan Of R.E.M. And Had Unfulfilled Plans To Collaborate On A Musical Project With Stipe. Cobain Told Rolling Stone In An Interview Earlier That Year "I Don’t Know How That Band Does What They Do. God They’re The Greatest. They've Dealt With Their Success Like Saints And They Keep Delivering Great Music." During His Show At The 40 Watt Club In October 2018 Johnny Marr Said "As A British Musician Coming Out Of The Indie Scene In The Early '80s Which I Definitely Am And Am Proud To Have Been I Can't Miss This Opportunity To Acknowledge And Pay My Respects And Honor The Guys Who Put This Town On The Map For Us In England. I'm Talking About My Comrades In Guitar Music R.E.M. The Smiths Really Respected R.E.M. We Had To Keep An Eye On What Those Guys Were Up To. It's An Interesting Thing For Me As A British Musician And All Those Guys As British Musicians To Come To This Place And Play For You Guys Knowing That It's The Roots Of Mike Mills And Bill Berry And Michael Stipe And My Good Friend Peter Buck."
Frogtoon Muziek - Nummerinformatie: Moon River
R.E.M. - Unplugged
"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 Is Most Well-Known For Being Sung In The Movie Breakfast At Tiffany's By Audrey Hepburn Although It Has Been Covered By Many Other Artists. It Became The Theme Song For Andy Williams Who First Recorded The Song In 1961 And Performed It At The Academy Awards Ceremonies In 1962. He Sang The First Eight Bars Of The Song At The Beginning Of His Television Show He Also Named His Production Company And Venue In Branson Missouri After Moon River. Williams' Version Was Vetoed By Cadence President Archie Bleyer Who Believed It Had Little Or No Appeal To Teenagers. Williams' Famous 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 Relaunching 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. The Original Version
Mercer And Mancini Wrote The Song For Audrey Hepburn To Fit Her Vocal Range. Initially The Lyrics Started "I'm Holly Like I Want To Be / Like Holly On A Tree Back Home..." However They Were Later Changed To Fit The Theme To The Movie Breakfast At Tiffany's. Although An Instrumental Version Is Played Over The Film's Opening Titles The Lyrics Are First Heard In A Scene Where Paul 'Fred' Varjak George Peppard Discovers Holly Golightly Hepburn Singing Them Accompanied By Her Guitar On The Fire-Escape Outside Their Apartments. There Was Much Behind-The-Scenes Consternation Which Erupted When A Paramount Pictures Executive Suggested Deleting The Song From The Film Immediately After A Very Successful San Francisco Preview. 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. Hepburn's Version Was Not Included In The Original Score Album To Breakfast At Tiffany's. Instead An Album Version Recorded By Mancini And His Chorus Was Released As A Single And Became A #11 Hit. In Different Versions Joel Whitburn's "Top Adult Contemporary Songs" Reported The Song As A #3 Or #1 Easy Listening Hit Due To Unpublished Charts In Billboard. Only Months After Hepburn's Death In 1993 Her Version Was Released On An Album Entitled Music From The Films Of Audrey Hepburn. Other Recordings
"Moon River" Was Released By South African Singer Danny Williams And Reached #1 In The UK. Shortly Thereafter Andy Williams Recorded The Song And Made It His Theme Song. It Was A Hit For Jerry Butler In 1961 Reaching #11 In The Billboard Charts. Other Artists That Have Covered The Song Are The Afghan Whigs Benny Anderssons Orkester Paul Anka Blake Louis Armstrong Vince Guaraldi Beru Revue Mary Black Sarah Brightman Liz Callaway Perry Como Ray Conniff Bobby Darin Ania Dąbrowska Dr. John Dump Billy Eckstine The Four Freshmen Connie Francis Bill Frisell Instrumental Emi Fujita Judy Garland Karel Gott Grant Green Instrumental Patty Griffin The Innocence Mission Although This Version Is Sometimes Incorrectly Cited As Being Performed By Milla Jovovich Bradley Joseph Instrumental Kim Yoo-Jin James Last Joey McIntyre Johnny Mathis Brad Mehldau Jane Monheit Morrissey Patsy Ann Noble Jim Reeves John Barrowman R.E.M. Mia Riddle Andrea Ross Frank Sinatra Barbra Streisand Sarah Vaughan Nan Vernon Kid Koala Westlife Victoria Williams The Divine Comedy And Tata Young. Mercer Himself Recorded The Song In 1974 For His Album Appropriately Named My Huckleberry Friend.
50 Vergelijkbare nummers:
R.E.M. - There She Goes Again R.E.M. - King Of The Road Faith No More - War Pigs Sonic Youth - Superstar The Presidents Of The United States Of America - Video Killed The Radio Star U2 - People Get Ready Arcade Fire - Brazil They Might Be Giants - New York City The Replacements - I'll Be There The Raconteurs - Teenage Kicks The White Stripes - Walking With A Ghost Counting Crows - Meet On The Ledge The White Stripes - Signed D.C. Sonic Youth - Computer Age Counting Crows - Ooh La La Faith No More - Easy Superchunk - Brand New Love Beck - Last Fair Deal Gone Down They Might Be Giants - Maybe I Know U2 - Helter Skelter Tindersticks - Here Yo La Tengo - Dreams Garbage - Cities In Dust Pearl Jam - Rockin' In The Free World Live Yo La Tengo - Dreaming Sheryl Crow - Sign Your Name The Replacements - 20th Century Boy Matchbox Twenty - Time After Time My Morning Jacket - All The Best Beck - Waitin' For A Train Echo & The Bunnymen - All You Need Is Love John Mellencamp - Stones In My Passway Oasis - Cum On Feel The Noize TV On The Radio - Heroes My Brightest Diamond - Feeling Good Randy Newman - Remember Allison Crowe - Creep Radiohead Porno For Pyros - Satellite Of Love Terrorvision - Moonage Daydream Ours - Bohemian Rhapsody Jesus Jones - We Are So Fragile Collective Soul - Crazy Train The Blue Aeroplanes - Sweet Jane The Urge - This Is Radio Clash Anthony Raneri - About A Girl Eagles Of Death Metal - Careless Whisper Edie Brickell And New Bohemians - A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall Hayley Williams - Teardrop Sleeping At Last - Total Eclipse Of The Heart Doubledrive - Mexican Radio
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MIXEN
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Tag musicali per R.E.M.:
Biography - R.E.M.
R.E.M. Was An American Rock Band From Athens Georgia Formed In 1980 By Drummer Bill Berry Guitarist Peter Buck Bassist/backing Vocalist Mike Mills And Lead Vocalist Michael Stipe. One Of The First Alternative Rock Bands R.E.M. Was Noted For Buck's Ringing Arpeggiated Guitar Style Stipe's Distinctive Vocal Quality And Obscure Lyrics Mills's Melodic Basslines And Backing Vocals And Berry's Tight Economical Style Of Drumming. R.E.M. Released Its First Single—"Radio Free Europe"—in 1981 On The Independent Record Label Hib-Tone. The Single Was Followed By The Chronic Town EP In 1982 The Band's First Release On I.R.S. Records. In 1983 The Group Released Its Critically Acclaimed Debut Album Murmur And Built Its Reputation Over The Next Few Years Through Subsequent Releases Constant Touring And The Support Of College Radio. Following Years Of Underground Success R.E.M. Achieved A Mainstream Hit In 1987 With The Single "The One I Love". The Group Signed To Warner Bros. Records In 1988 And Began To Espouse Political And Environmental Concerns While Playing Large Arenas Worldwide. By The Early 1990s When Alternative Rock Began To Enter The Mainstream R.E.M. Was Viewed By Subsequent Acts Such As Nirvana And Pavement As A Pioneer Of The Genre. The Band Released Its Two Most Commercially Successful Albums Out Of Time 1991 And Automatic For The People 1992 Which Veered From The Band's Established Sound And Catapulted It To International Fame. R.E.M.'s 1994 Release Monster Was A Return To A More Rock-Oriented Sound But Still Continued Its Run Of Success. The Band Began Its First Tour In Six Years To Support The Album The Tour Was Marred By Medical Emergencies Suffered By Three Of The Band Members. In 1996 R.E.M. Re-Signed With Warner Bros. For A Reported US$80 Million At The Time The Most Expensive Recording Contract In History. Its 1996 Release New Adventures In Hi-Fi Though Critically Acclaimed Fared Worse Commercially Than Its Predecessors. The Following Year Bill Berry Left The Band While Stipe Buck And Mills Continued The Group As A Trio. Through Some Changes In Musical Style The Band Continued Its Career Into The Next Decade With Mixed Critical And Commercial Success Despite Having Sold More Than 85 Million Records Worldwide And Becoming One Of The World's Best-Selling Music Artists. In 2007 The Band Was Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame In Their First Year Of Eligibility. R.E.M. Disbanded Amicably In September 2011 Announcing The Split On Its Website. In January 1980 Michael Stipe Met Peter Buck In Wuxtry Records The Athens Record Store Where Buck Worked. The Pair Discovered That They Shared Similar Tastes In Music Particularly In Punk Rock And Protopunk Artists Like Patti Smith Television And The Velvet Underground. Stipe Said "It Turns Out That I Was Buying All The Records That Buck Was Saving For Himself." Through Mutual Friend Kathleen O'Brien Stipe And Buck Then Met Fellow University Of Georgia Students Mike Mills And Bill Berry Who Had Played Music Together Since High School And Lived Together In Georgia. The Quartet Agreed To Collaborate On Several Songs Stipe Later Commented That "there Was Never Any Grand Plan Behind Any Of It". Their Still-Unnamed Band Spent A Few Months Rehearsing In A Deconsecrated Episcopal Church In Athens And Played Its First Show On April 5 1980 Supporting The Side Effects At O'Brien's Birthday Party Held In The Same Church Performing A Mix Of Originals And 1960s And 1970s Covers. After Considering Twisted Kites Cans Of Piss And Negro Eyes The Band Settled On "R.E.M." Which Is An Initialism For Rapid Eye Movement The Dream Stage Of Sleep Which Stipe Selected At Random From A Dictionary. The Band Members Eventually Dropped Out Of School To Focus On Their Developing Group. They Found A Manager In Jefferson Holt A Record Store Clerk Who Was So Impressed By An R.E.M. Performance In His Hometown Of Chapel Hill North Carolina That He Moved To Athens. R.E.M.'s Success Was Almost Immediate In Athens And Surrounding Areas The Band Drew Progressively Larger Crowds For Shows Which Caused Some Resentment In The Athens Music Scene. Over The Next Year And A Half R.E.M. Toured Throughout The Southern United States. Touring Was Arduous Because A Touring Circuit For Alternative Rock Bands Did Not Then Exist. The Group Toured In An Old Blue Van Driven By Holt And Lived On A Food Allowance Of $2 Each Per Day. R.E.M. Was Pivotal In The Creation And Development Of The Alternative Rock Genre. AllMusic Stated "R.E.M. Mark The Point When Post-Punk Turned Into Alternative Rock." In The Early 1980s The Musical Style Of R.E.M. Stood In Contrast To The Post-Punk And New Wave Genres That Had Preceded It. Music Journalist Simon Reynolds Noted That The Post-Punk Movement Of The Late 1970s And Early 1980s "had Taken Whole Swaths Of Music Off The Menu" Particularly That Of The 1960s And That "After Postpunk's Demystification And New Pop's Schematics It Felt Liberating To Listen To Music Rooted In Mystical Awe And Blissed-Out Surrender." Reynolds Declared R.E.M. A Band That Recalled The Music Of The 1960s With Its "plangent Guitar Chimes And Folk-Styled Vocals" And Who "wistfully And Abstractly Conjured Visions And New Frontiers For America" One Of "the Two Most Important Alt-Rock Bands Of The Day." With The Release Of Murmur R.E.M. Had The Most Impact Musically And Commercially Of The Developing Alternative Genre's Early Groups Leaving In Its Wake A Number Of Jangle Pop Followers. R.E.M.'s Early Breakthrough Success Served As An Inspiration For Other Alternative Bands. Spin Referred To The "R.E.M. Model"—career Decisions That R.E.M. Made Which Set Guidelines For Other Underground Artists To Follow In Their Own Careers. Spin's Charles Aaron Wrote That By 1985 "They'd Shown How Far An Underground Punk-Inspired Rock Band Could Go Within The Industry Without Whoring Out Its Artistic Integrity In Any Obvious Way. They'd Figured Out How To Buy In Not Sellout-In Other Words They'd Achieved The American Bohemian Dream." Steve Wynn Of Dream Syndicate Said "They Invented A Whole New Ballgame For All Of The Other Bands To Follow Whether It Was Sonic Youth Or The Replacements Or Nirvana Or Butthole Surfers. R.E.M. Staked The Claim. Musically The Bands Did Different Things But R.E.M. Was First To Show Us You Can Be Big And Still Be Cool." Biographer David Buckley Stated That Between 1991 And 1994 A Period That Saw The Band Sell An Estimated 30 Million Albums R.E.M. "asserted Themselves As Rivals To U2 For The Title Of Biggest Rock Band In The World." Over The Course Of Its Career The Band Has Sold Over 85 Million Records Worldwide. Alternative Bands Such As Nirvana Pavement Radiohead Coldplay Pearl Jam The Band's Vocalist Eddie Vedder Inducted R.E.M. Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Live Have Drawn Inspiration From R.E.M.'s Music. "When I Was 15 Years Old In Richmond Virginia They Were A Very Important Part Of My Life " Pavement's Bob Nastanovich Said "as They Were For All The Members Of Our Band." Pavement's Contribution To The No Alternative Compilation 1993 Was "Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence" A Song About R.E.M.'s Early Days. Local H According To The Band's Twitter Account Created Their Name By Combining Two R.E.M. Songs "Oddfellows Local 151" And "Swan Swan H". Kurt Cobain Of Nirvana Was A Fan Of R.E.M. And Had Unfulfilled Plans To Collaborate On A Musical Project With Stipe. Cobain Told Rolling Stone In An Interview Earlier That Year "I Don’t Know How That Band Does What They Do. God They’re The Greatest. They've Dealt With Their Success Like Saints And They Keep Delivering Great Music." During His Show At The 40 Watt Club In October 2018 Johnny Marr Said "As A British Musician Coming Out Of The Indie Scene In The Early '80s Which I Definitely Am And Am Proud To Have Been I Can't Miss This Opportunity To Acknowledge And Pay My Respects And Honor The Guys Who Put This Town On The Map For Us In England. I'm Talking About My Comrades In Guitar Music R.E.M. The Smiths Really Respected R.E.M. We Had To Keep An Eye On What Those Guys Were Up To. It's An Interesting Thing For Me As A British Musician And All Those Guys As British Musicians To Come To This Place And Play For You Guys Knowing That It's The Roots Of Mike Mills And Bill Berry And Michael Stipe And My Good Friend Peter Buck."
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16 Vergelijkbare artiesten als R.E.M. - Frogtoon Muziek
U2 The Replacements Manic Street Preachers Toad The Wet Sprocket Pixies Barenaked Ladies The Lemonheads Live Counting Crows Sugar Pearl Jam 10,000 Maniacs Gin Blossoms Wilco Beck Soul Asylum.
"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 is most well-known for being sung in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's by Audrey Hepburn, although it has been covered by many other artists.
It became the theme song for Andy Williams, who first recorded the song in 1961 and performed it at the Academy Awards ceremonies in 1962. He sang the first eight bars of the song at the beginning of his television show; he also named his production company and venue in Branson, Missouri after Moon River. Williams' version was vetoed by Cadence president Archie Bleyer, who believed it had little or no appeal to teenagers. Williams' famous 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 relaunching 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.
The original version
Mercer and Mancini wrote the song for Audrey Hepburn to fit her vocal range. Initially the lyrics started, "I'm Holly, like I want to be / like Holly on a tree back home...", however they were later changed to fit the theme to the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Although an instrumental version is played over the film's opening titles, the lyrics are first heard in a scene where Paul 'Fred' Varjak (George Peppard) discovers Holly Golightly (Hepburn) singing them, accompanied by her guitar, on the fire-escape outside their apartments.
There was much behind-the-scenes consternation which erupted when a Paramount Pictures executive suggested deleting the song from the film immediately after a very successful San Francisco preview. 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.
Hepburn's version was not included in the original score album to Breakfast at Tiffany's. Instead, an album version recorded by Mancini and his chorus was released as a single and became a #11 hit. In different versions, Joel Whitburn's "Top Adult (Contemporary) Songs" reported the song as a #3 or #1 easy listening hit, due to unpublished charts in Billboard. Only months after Hepburn's death in 1993, her version was released on an album entitled Music from the Films of Audrey Hepburn.
Other recordings
"Moon River" was released by South African singer Danny Williams, and reached #1 in the UK. Shortly thereafter, Andy Williams recorded the song and made it his theme song. It was a hit for Jerry Butler in 1961, reaching #11 in the Billboard charts. Other artists that have covered the song are The Afghan Whigs, Benny Anderssons Orkester, Paul Anka, Blake, Louis Armstrong, Vince Guaraldi, Beru Revue, Mary Black, Sarah Brightman, Liz Callaway, Perry Como, Ray Conniff, Bobby Darin, Ania Dąbrowska, Dr. John, Dump, Billy Eckstine, The Four Freshmen, Connie Francis, Bill Frisell (instrumental), Emi Fujita, Judy Garland, Karel Gott, Grant Green (instrumental), Patty Griffin, The Innocence Mission (although this version is sometimes incorrectly cited as being performed by Milla Jovovich), Bradley Joseph (instrumental), Kim Yoo-jin, James Last, Joey McIntyre, Johnny Mathis, Brad Mehldau, Jane Monheit, Morrissey, Patsy Ann Noble, Jim Reeves, John Barrowman, R.E.M., Mia Riddle, Andrea Ross, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Sarah Vaughan, Nan Vernon, Kid Koala, Westlife, Victoria Williams, The Divine Comedy, and Tata Young.
Mercer himself recorded the song in 1974 for his album (appropriately named) My Huckleberry Friend.
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