Moon River Moon River "Moon River" is a song composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's", winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The song also won the 1962 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song has been covered by many other artists. It became the theme song for Andy Williams, who first recorded it in 1962 (and performed it at the Academy Awards ceremony that year). He sang the first eight bars of the song at the
Fly Me to the Moon and the Bossa Nova Pops" released in early 1963, which reached No. 3 stereo album on the "Billboard" Top LP's chart. Versions of the song were released by many other 1960s instrumental artists, including Roy Haynes, Al Hirt and Oscar Peterson. Frank Sinatra included the song on his 1964 album "It Might as Well Be Swing", accompanied by Count Basie. The music for this album was arranged by Quincy Jones, who had worked with Count Basie a year earlier on the album "This Time by Basie", which also included a version of "Fly Me to the Moon". Will Friedwald commented