But when they dolled her up, wasn’t it a surprise to discover that Audrey Hepburn was (gasp) beautiful? Same thing in Funny Face where she took off her glasses and wow, she was actually lovely!
Those recordings were more musique concrete, the best notes of many takes spliced together, than a realistic representation of her singing while, because she is a total professional, I assume Marni Nixon went into the studio, recorder her tracks, and left.
This CD has Audrey singing “Moon River” (as well as some other terrific, oddly-assorted tracks).
But not the beginning and end of “Just You Wait, Henry Higgins”. Dubbing starts at “One day, I’ll be famous, I’ll be proper and prim”. Her real voice begins again at “Then they’ll march you, Henry Higgins, to the wall”.
There is one re-edit of My Fair Lady where they had Audrey’s version of one song put back in. I think it was “wouldn’t it be lovely”.
Does this ring a bell with anyone?
BTW: I love her voice, Moon River is just so plaintive and moving. What a great job Mercer and Mancini did write a song to fit a voice.
Jim
Wasn’t it the Andy Williams’ version that became the mega-hit after the film was released?
I doubt Marni Nixon recorded all of her songs in one take, so it’s likely that her numbers were as much “musique concrete” as Hepburn’s. As I understand it, it’s pretty standard to splice together bis from various takes to make a finished recording.
I don’t recall which had the bigger hit, but Jerry Butler had the version that sticks in my mind.
Yes. It was popular when I was in high school and I think it was our class theme.
I think that “Moon River” may have become Andy Williams theme song for his television show. He had a very popular recording.
In a recent Johnny Mercer biography, the author says that a section of the Savannah River that flows past Bonaventure Cemetery has been renamed Moon River. I have been unable to find it so designated on a map of Savannah. This cemetery is the one referred to in the title of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. A couple of hundred feet from the waters edge rests the remains of Johnny Mercer.
Why is the youtube clip in black-and-white (or, I guess, sepia)? The movie was in color.
They recently added her version of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” to the end credits, IIRC. I personally preferred her’s to Marnie Nixon’s, as Marnie’s sounded far too polished and posh for a poor guttersnipe in that song. Reportedly, Audrey was determined to at least sing that song on her own, and was working extensively with vocal coaches and what not. When she found out they weren’t going to use her voice after all, she stormed off the set. The next day she returned, very meekly, and appologized.
She also sang “La Vie En Rose” in Sabrina.