|
|
|
|
|
|
| Recording History |
|
101 Strings Orchestra, Young At Heart, Medacy Entertainment, #8P-2-1907-6
|
|
Aaron Neville with The Neville Brothers, Aaron Neville Love Songs, A&M Records, #069 493 557-2
|
|
Alexander Brothers, Mercury Records, 5447
|
|
Karen Benjamin and Alan Chapman
|
|
Don Cherry and Victor Young, 1952
|
|
Nat King Cole, Capitol Sings The Best Movie Songs, #CDP 7 98475 2
|
|
Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole, Nat King Cole/Natalie Cole Vocal Hits Back 2 Back, #72435-36777-2-5
|
|
The Columbia Ballroom Orchestra, Let's Dance Vol. 6, Competition Dancing, Denon Records
|
|
Harry Connick, Jr., Your Songs, 2009
|
|
Hank Crawford, Tight
|
|
Bing Crosby, Academy Award Winners and Nominees, UMG Recordings, Inc., #1034-1960
|
|
Dennis Day
|
|
Ray Evans
|
|
Michael Feinstein, Livingston & Evans Songbook, Concord Records, FCD-3101-2, 2002
|
|
Marvin Gaye, A Tribute To The Great Nat King Cole, UMG Recordings, Inc.
|
|
Julio Iglesias, Love Songs, Sony Music Entertainment
|
|
Bruddah Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole), Alone in IZ World
|
|
Harry James
|
|
Allan Jones, Music & Memories, #MMD1142
|
|
Earl Klugh, Late Night Guitar
|
|
Snooky Larson, from the NBC radio show Your Hit Parade, September 2, 1950
|
|
Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire, The Best of Jerry Lee Lewis
|
|
Kon Ling, Off-Beat Cha Cha, Diamond Records, 1961
|
|
Jay Livingston, demo
|
|
Art Lund
|
|
Henry Mancini, As Time Goes By and Other Classic Movie Love Songs, BMG Records
|
|
Carl Mann, Phillips International REcords, #3539, 1959
|
|
Carl Mann, Sun Records The 50th Anniversary Collection, BMG Heritage Records, #74465 99000 2
|
|
Me First and The Gimme Gimmes
|
|
Willie Nelson, Revolutions of Time, The Journey, Columbia Records
|
|
Pérez Prado, 1959
|
|
Elvis Presley
|
|
The Ray Brown Trio, Summer Wind, Live at The Loa, Concord Records, Inc.
|
|
Jim Reeves, Girls I have Known, The Intimate Jim Reeves.
|
|
Seal, Soundtrack from Mona Lisa Smiles, Warner Bros. Records
|
|
The Singers Unlimited, Magic Voices box set, UMG Recordings, Inc.
|
|
Shakin' Stevens
|
|
Conway Twitty, MGM Records, 1959
|
|
Jerry Vale
|
|
Jon Weber, It's Never Quite the Same, Mood Records, MD-1111, 1998
|
|
Bob Wilber and Dick Hyman, A Perfect Match, Arbors Records, Inc.
|
|
| Listen |
|
|
|
| Highlights |
- Written for the 1950 Paramount Pictures film Captain Carey, U.S.A. starring Alan Ladd, Wanda Hendrix and Francis Lederer.
- An American returns to post-WWII Italy to bring a traitor to justice.
- Based on the novel No Surrender by Martha Albrand published in 1942.
- Filmed under the working title O.S.S. and then After Midnight, but was released as Captain Carey U.S.A.
- Won the Academy Award for Best Song for 1950.
- The theme song, sung by Nat King Cole was arranged by Nelson Riddle with orchestral backing by Les Baxter and his Orchestra.
- The soundtrack version by Nat King Cole spent eight weeks at number one in the Billboard singles chart in 1950.
- In 1986 the song was used as the theme song for the British film Mona Lisa starring Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson and Michael Caine.
- Nat King Cole's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992.
|
|
| WRITTEN BY RAY EVANS & JAY LIVINGSTON |
| COPYRIGHT 1949 |
| Lyrics |
Spoken (ad lib):
In a villa in a little old Italian town lives a girl whose beauty shames the rose.
Many yearn to love her but their hopes all tumble down.
What does she want? No one knows!
Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, men have named you:
You’re so like the lady with the mystic smile.
Is it only ‘cause you’re lonely, they have blamed you
For that Mona Lisa strangeness in your smile?
Do you smile to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa?
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?
Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep
They just lie there, and they die there.
Are you warm, are you real, Mona Lisa?
Or just a cold and lonely lovely work of art?
Do you smile to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa?
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?
Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep
They just lie there, and they die there.
Are you warm, are you real, Mona Lisa?
Or just a cold and lonely lovely work of art?
Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa.
|
| MONA LISA From the Paramount Picture Captain Carey, U.S.A. starring Alan Ladd and Wanda Hendrix, Famous Music Corp., 1949. Music and Words by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans (Special Picture Release) |
|
