Meglio stasera Meglio stasera "Meglio stasera" (known in English as "It Had Better Be Tonight") is a 1963 song in samba rhythm with music by Henry Mancini, Italian lyrics by Franco Migliacci and English lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was composed for the 1963 film "The Pink Panther" where it was performed by Fran Jeffries. In addition to the vocal performance, instrumental portions of the song appear in the film's underscore, sometimes as an introduction to the main "Pink Panther Theme". The beginning of the song, in the original Italian, is here followed by a literal translation and the first two lines
Henry Mancini from the Motion Picture ..." He routinely retained the rights to his music. Mancini's contracts allowed him to release his own albums for which he rearranged the score music into arrangements more appropriate for listening outside of the context of the film/theater. Actual film scores using players from Hollywood unions recording under major motion picture studio contracts were expensive to release on LP (ex: the soundtrack for 'Our Man Flint' (not a Mancini score) cost $1 more than other LP albums of the day). Many soundtrack albums used to claim "Original Soundtrack" or words to that effect, but were not