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
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (theme) film. This instrumental composition plays at the beginning of the film. Largely due to the memorable quality of the main theme, the film's soundtrack peaked at #4 on the "Billboard" 200 album chart, and it stayed on this chart for over a year. Hugo Montenegro was an American composer and orchestra leader who began scoring films in the 1960s. After hearing the music from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", he decided to create a cover version of the theme. Musician Tommy Morgan is quoted in Wesley Hyatt's "The Billboard Book of#1 Adult Contemporary Hits" as saying that Montenegro's