Moon River is a classic traditional pop tune composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s and appears on the soundtrack Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Music from the Motion Picture (1961). The song was released as a single in 1961, with the instrumental version recorded in 1960 at the RCA Music Center of the World. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Mancini won Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1962; Mancini’s recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The tune has been widely covered, including a popular version by Andy Williams (1962) that helped define his theme song; Williams’ rendition was preserved by the Library of Congress in 2022. Moon River is a wistful jazz standard about wanderlust and memory, with Mercer drawing on his Savannah, Georgia upbringing; an inlet near Savannah was named Moon River in his honor.
