Breakfast At Tiffany's - Music From The Motion Picture Score Composed And Conducted By Henry Mancini (1961)

Note: my copy is the 1988 remaster.

35 minutes of nuanced composing that might be better than the movie itself. Mancini is on top of his game here. Great lounge music, many tracks have a bossa/Latin feel. Still hip today, I've played this at parties with great success. A big hit when it was released, this album spent the first half of 1961 atop the Billboard album chart. At the 1962 Academy Awards, Mancini and Johnny Mercer won Oscars for Best Original Song for Moon River, while Mancini picked up a second statue for Best Original Score. Henry Mancini also won the Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album or Recording or Score. Recommended for cheesy fun.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #1 (12 weeks between Feb 10 - May 5, 1962)

Tracks: Believe it or not, I usually skip Moon River and head straight for the swinging '60s big band music. Moon River is a great song, but that folky ballad is very different from what follows. Top cuts are Something For Cat, The Big Blow Out, Latin Golightly, Loose Caboose, and Moon River Cha Cha. Named after the Mickey Rooney character, the song Mr. Yunioshi is probably the weakest of the bunch, but, then again, that whole character is offensive now. Can you imagine the outrage if a character like Yunioshi was in a movie released now?

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Of course I'm reminded of the movie, which I've seen more times than I could count (even though I prefer Truman Capote's ending over Blake Edward's). My favorite scene is the party scene, especially the woman looking in the mirror.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Quincy Jones - Explores the Music of Henry Mancini (1968)