Mona Lisa is a pop standard with music by Jay Livingston and lyrics by Ray Evans, published by Famous Music Corp. in New York on November 28, 1949. It was written for the Paramount Pictures film Captain Carey, U.S.A., where a recurrent accordion motif accompanies it and Sergio De Karlo performs it on screen. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1950. The best-known recording is by Nat King Cole, made at Capitol's Hollywood studio on March 11, 1950 and released on Capitol 1010 on June 12, 1950, backed by "The Greatest Inventor of Them All". The song was first the B-side, then spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard singles chart in 1950. Cole re-recorded it in stereo in 1961 with Ralph Carmichael and his Orchestra, and the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992.
Early covers by Charlie Spivak and His Orchestra, with vocals by Tommy Lynn, and by Dennis Day with Victor Young sold well. Later covers by Moon Mullican, Jimmy Wakely, Conway Twitty, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley and Natalie Cole charted. The sheet music is in E flat, and the song is a slow, romantic ballad with jazz and pop arrangements.
