"Laura" is a popular song with music by David Raksin and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It is the main theme of the 1944 American film Laura, directed by Otto Preminger and starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. Preminger first wanted Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady" as the theme, but Raksin wrote an alternative in one weekend, and the melody became haunting. Mercer wrote the lyrics after the film had made the tune popular, and the song was released as a popular song in 1945. It became a jazz standard, and its first ten notes are often quoted in jazz solos; Dizzy Gillespie quoted them in "Perdido" at Massey Hall in 1953. Well-known recordings include those by Woody Herman, Dave Brubeck, Frank Sinatra (1949), Charlie Parker with Strings (1950), Nat King Cole (1952), Julie London (1955) and Ella Fitzgerald (1964, on her Johnny Mercer songbook album). Carly Simon and Dexter Gordon also recorded it.
