Breakfast at Tiffany's: Better Theme

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Like many of you, I love the glitter and shimmer of 1961 New York in Breakfast at Tiffany's. But I must confess I've never cared much for Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer'sMoon River, the movie's official theme. Oh, it's a great song and all, but I've always found it maudlin and misplaced for the Kennedy-era film. It's just too rural-sounding given the sophistication and dazzle of the big city.

The song I truly fancy from Breakfast at Tiffany's—and the song that should have been the theme—is Mancini's strings and vocal-harmony music that plays when George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn go shopping. Can't get enough of it. That's the New York I remember when I was 5.

The beauty of the web is that whatever thrills you in music or film almost always thrills someone else—and that person has likely done an eccentric job of blowing it out on YouTube. So after digging around for a clip, I stumbled across something better.

Here's what should have been the movie's theme—and a montage of Audrey Hepburn scenes from the film...
Used with permission by Marc Myers