Moon River - guitar chords and comments
Lyrics without distraction HERE
Henry Mancini, born Enrico Nicola Mancini (1924 – 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist. He stood behind incredibly many movies and TV-series, and left us more than 90 albums as a musician.
This song is from Breakfast at Tiffany's (1959) starring Audrey Hepburn, and it soon became a standard for crooners, notably Andy Williams and Frank Sinatra.
It is a parallell to what nearly happened 20 years before: "Over the Rainbow" was about to be skipped by the MGM bosses. The Paramount bosses regarded "Moon River" as too weak, and would leave it. Hepburn said "Over my dead body". She survived, and the song, too. Indeed.
G Em C G
moon river wider than a mile
C Bm Am ...B7
I'm crossing you in style some day
Em G7 Cmaj7 Cm
oh dream maker you heart breaker
Em7 Gdim A7 Am ...D7
wherever you’re going I’m going your way
G Em C G
two drifters off to see the world
Cmaj7 Bm Am ...B7
there's such a lot of world to see
Em Em7 Cmaj7 Cm G
we're after the same rainbows end
C G
waiting round the bend
C Bm
my huckleberry friend
Cmaj7 Am D6 G
moon river and me
I'm not a crooner. So how did this song come to me? It's creepy.
I first heard it in 1963: a radio program in memory of Jim Reeves. I've always regarded children's songs as bullshit, and went on directly to the real thing. I taped the program, 8 years old, with a Tandberg 4-track.
The years passed. I heard the song every now and then, by various performers. It passed me by.
Last year I stumbled into a quarrel with the till lady at my regular shop, and she told me to get my phone and go google something. Mobile phone? Cell phone? Huh. I've got an archaic box serving me well as a "phone" and handling SMS. The label is DORO. It's inherited from some old lady I used to know. Good enough for me. I don't need Internet in my pocket.
It all came down on me. I drew up a fictional mobile, and started tapping at my hand, humming "DORO DORO, DORO; DO RO-DO-RO-DO-RO-DO-RO-DO-ROOOO...DORODORO" and so on. Three customers behind me joined, and it grew. We even got applause from influx customers. The till lady gave in, not to block up the daily business, and the stunt resulted in me being declared as tecnically obsolete but still useful.
Back home I started wondering "where did that come from"? Uhuh. Pink Panther Theme, I recalled. Who the heck made that? Googling ... on a REAL PC, not fingerfucking a tincan ... I found Henry Mancini. I knew his name, but ... omigosh ...
Sixty years after listening to a radio program, the circle is closed. I'm floating in the moon river; hunting the rainbow's end.