Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole song)
Encyclopedia
"Mona Lisa" is a song written by Ray Evans
and Jay Livingston
for the Paramount Pictures
film Captain Carey, U.S.A.
(1950). It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song
for 1950. The arrangement
was by Nelson Riddle
and the orchestral backing was played 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
. Also, Cole's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992. The Billboard sales charts of 1950 also showed significant sales on versions by Dennis Day and Harry James. In 1986, it was used as the theme to the British film Mona Lisa. An uncredited version of Mona Lisa plays in the background of one scene in Alfred Hitchcock
's Rear Window
(1954). The song was used in the wedding scene of the NBC mini-series, Witness to the Mob, in 1998.
Various artists, including Elvis Presley
, Willie Nelson
, Art Lund
, Shakin' Stevens
, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
, the Neville Brothers, and Nat King Cole's daughter Natalie Cole
, have released cover versions of this song. Bruddah Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)
also covered the song on the album Alone in IZ World. Harry Connick, Jr.
included the song on his 2009 album, Your Songs
.
A rockabilly
version of "Mona Lisa" (b/w/ "Foolish One") was released by Carl Mann
on Phillips International Records
(#3539) in March 1959 and reached number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100
. Conway Twitty
recorded a version of "Mona Lisa" in February 1959, but planned to release it only as an album cut (on an EP and an LP by MGM Records
). Nevertheless, it peaked at #5 in the UK Singles Chart
in that year. Sam Phillips
signed Carl Mann to record his version of the song after the Twitty version began getting radio play in early 1959. This was the most successful single in Mann's career. The melody is slightly different, and the lyrics are also mostly the same as in the original version by Nat King Cole, though a few more phrases are added in that elaborate more on the girl he likes.
The singer Don Cherry
recorded a version backed by the Victor Young Orchestra
which reached number seven in 1952.
In 1961, this song was covered by Hong Kong
female singer Kong Ling (江玲), on her LP album Off-Beat Cha Cha with the local Diamond Records.
Ray Evans
Raymond Bernard Evans was an American songwriter. He was a partner in a composing and songwriting duo with Jay Livingston, known for the songs they composed for films...
and Jay Livingston
Jay Livingston
Jay Livingston was an American composer and singer best known as half of a songwriting duo with Ray Evans that specialized in songs composed for films. Livingston wrote the music and Evans the lyrics....
for the Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
film Captain Carey, U.S.A.
Captain Carey, U.S.A.
Captain Carey, U.S.A. is a 1950 drama film starring Alan Ladd, Wanda Hendrix, and Francis Lederer. An American returns to post-World War II Italy to bring a traitor to justice.The film was based on the novel No Surrender by Martha Albrand...
(1950). It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song
Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
for 1950. The arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
was by Nelson Riddle
Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s...
and the orchestral backing was played by Les Baxter and his Orchestra
Les Baxter
Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...
. The soundtrack version by Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
spent eight weeks at number one in the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
singles chart in 1950
1950 in music
-Events:*January 3 – Sam Phillips launches Sun Records at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee.*August – Herbert Howells' Hymnus Paradisi is premiered at the Three Choirs Festival.*Malcolm Sargent becomes chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra....
. Also, Cole's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992. The Billboard sales charts of 1950 also showed significant sales on versions by Dennis Day and Harry James. In 1986, it was used as the theme to the British film Mona Lisa. An uncredited version of Mona Lisa plays in the background of one scene in Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's Rear Window
Rear Window
Rear Window is a 1954 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes and based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder"...
(1954). The song was used in the wedding scene of the NBC mini-series, Witness to the Mob, in 1998.
Various artists, including Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Art Lund
Art Lund
Art Lund was an American baritone singer, initially with bandleaders Benny Goodman and Harry James, and was also a television and stage actor.-Biography:...
, Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens, also known as "Shaky" is a platinum selling Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter who holds the distinction of being the UK's biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s . His recording and performing career began in the late 1960s, although it was not until 1980 that he saw...
, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is a punk rock supergroup and cover band that formed in 1995. The Gimmes work exclusively as a cover band. The band is named after a children's book of the same name by Gerald G. Jampolsky and Diane V. Cirincione...
, the Neville Brothers, and Nat King Cole's daughter Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
, have released cover versions of this song. Bruddah Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Israel "IZ" Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole was a Hawaiian musician.He became famous outside Hawaii when his album Facing Future was released in 1993...
also covered the song on the album Alone in IZ World. Harry Connick, Jr.
Harry Connick, Jr.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. is an American singer, big-band leader/conductor, pianist, actor, and composer. He has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with...
included the song on his 2009 album, Your Songs
Your Songs
Your Songs is a studio album by American multi-platinum selling recording artist Harry Connick, Jr., released by Columbia Records.It was released first in the United States on a 2 disc limited edition vinyl LP on August 25, 2009, then released on CD on September 22.The album is a collaboration with...
.
A rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
version of "Mona Lisa" (b/w/ "Foolish One") was released by Carl Mann
Carl Mann
Carl Mann is an American rockabilly singer and pianist.Mann was raised in rural Tennessee; his parents owned a lumber business. He sang in church and did country songs for local talent shows, playing guitar and piano...
on Phillips International Records
Phillips International Records
Phillips International Records is a sub-label of Sun Records started by Sam Phillips in October 1957.The label, showed a blue globe with Phillips prominent and the words Sam C --- International Corp on a red white and blue ribbon below....
(#3539) in March 1959 and reached number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty , born Harold Lloyd Jenkins, was an American country music artist. He also had success in early rock and roll, R&B, and pop music. He held the record for the most number one singles of any act with 55 No. 1 Billboard country hits until George Strait broke the record in 2006...
recorded a version of "Mona Lisa" in February 1959, but planned to release it only as an album cut (on an EP and an LP by MGM Records
MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...
). Nevertheless, it peaked at #5 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in that year. Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...
signed Carl Mann to record his version of the song after the Twitty version began getting radio play in early 1959. This was the most successful single in Mann's career. The melody is slightly different, and the lyrics are also mostly the same as in the original version by Nat King Cole, though a few more phrases are added in that elaborate more on the girl he likes.
The singer Don Cherry
Don Cherry (singer/golfer)
Donald Ross Cherry is an American singer of traditional pop music, best known for his 1955 hit, "Band of Gold"; and a former amateur and professional golfer.-Biography:...
recorded a version backed by the Victor Young Orchestra
Victor Young
Victor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
which reached number seven in 1952.
In 1961, this song was covered by Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
female singer Kong Ling (江玲), on her LP album Off-Beat Cha Cha with the local Diamond Records.
Moon Mullican
| Chart (1950) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 4 |
Jimmy Wakely
| Chart (1950) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 10 |
Conway Twitty
| Chart (1959) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 2 |
| Belgian Singles Chart | 3 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
5 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 29 |
See also
- List of number-one singles of 1950 (U.S.)
- List of number-one rhythm and blues hits (United States)