RECENT MANCINI – HANK’S TOP 3 SONGS in MODERN WORKS

 

Months ago, I kicked around a final Henry Mancini centennial year blogpost that, perhaps, should have been my first this year. The idea was to point to three recent pop culture uses of Henry Mancini’s music – that could guide generations born after Mancini’s heyday (or his life) to his genius. The tricky word in that last sentence is “recent”.

I asked my friend Paul – a teacher at American University – what his audio and composition students consider “recent”. His reply: anything that happened in the last 30 years. That was a good start for me – especially since Mancini passed away 30 years ago on June 14, 1994.

While I wanted to blitzkrieg readers with the appearances or homages to Mancini in all things from Hallmark movies to Spotify covers, I decided to stick to his top 3 most popular songs most often associated with the name Henry Mancini. Those songs, in order of release, would be: Peter Gunn, Moon River, and the Pink Panther theme. And so, here is a recent appearance of each of these songs in pop culture.

PETER GUNN … in The Sopranos (2001)

This is the song that rocketed the career of Henry Mancini and his filmmaking friend/collaborator Blake Edwards. Mancini often said that Peter Gunn theme's success was always a mystery to him since the song structure is so simple (see our September post for more on that story). 

Gunn’s simplicity is its charm. The song has appeared in many things from The Blues Brothers (1980) to Greg Thompson’s Viva Las Vegas theatrical revue (1994). But the most recent appearance of note is in the “Mr. Ruggiero’s Neighborhood” episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos. This 27th Soprano episode aired on March 4, 2001. 

Mash-ups were trending in the early 2000s and I’m guessing Soprano producers just couldn’t help themselves by combining the blatant surveillance message of The Police’s Every Breath You Take with a throwback crime/noir theme like Peter Gunn. Honestly, Gunn is infinitely cooler than Breath. Yet, Breath is a more accessible and recognizable song to younger viewers circa 2001.

Peter Gunn is covered quite a bit by everyone from synth band The Art of Noise to jazz greats like Herbie Hancock. It remains in my Top 5 All-Time Favorite Songs on Spotify.

MOON RIVER … in Frazier (1994)

From Blake Edwards’ film Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Moon River almost was cut from the film by a studio executive. It was Audrey Hepburn who fought to keep the song in the film and Moon River went on to garner Mancini one of his four Oscars. The song, like Peter Gunn, has been covered by many, many artists. But the best version remains the film version featuring vocals by Audrey Hepburn herself:

In a pop culture sense, Moon River has been heard or lampooned in many movies and TV shows from Fletch (1985) to The Simpsons (in 1996). While its appearance in the sitcom Frazier (in 1994) isn’t the most recent one, it’s the most recent NOTABLE one. Here is just a brief clip of Moon River’s cameo in the 13th episode of season one of Frazier. Clicking on the screengrab below will take you to the first note of Moon River in that episode on YARN...

In this episode entitled “Guess Who’s Coming To Breakfast”, Frazier had an interesting telephone call into his talk radio program at the top of the show. It was from a man seeking Frazier’s help. The man was none other than Henry Mancini! Mancini was playing a character named “Al”- a caller who hates the sound of his own voice. 

THE PINK PANTHER THEME in Pink Panther Jewel Heist Arcade Game (2015)

Oh, the Pink Panther theme is extremely well known from the endless series of Pink Panther cartoons over the decades more than those who remember seeing the original 1963 movie or the 2006 Steve Martin remake.

But, for what it’s worth, my favorite pop culture appearance of this “dead ant - dead ant – dead ant-dead ant-dead ant-dead ant-dead annnnnnnnnnnnnnt….” song is in the Pink Panther Jewel Heist Arcade Game (2015).

The game is basically Donkey Kong in reverse but its catchy theme opening, colorful graphics, and neon-encrusted game case make it lovable and addicting. To date, I’ve cleared 96 out of 100 levels. With the support of my family, I hope to beat this game by the end of this Henry Mancini centennial year.

My patient wife took this photo of me playing Pink Panther on our Anniversary date.

Here’s the 1963 original movie version of the Pink Panther theme:

This is the last of the Top 100 Henry Mancini Films posts on our blog for 2024. For those keeping score, the songs mentioned here appeared in the Top 100 Films as follows: Peter Gunn (a 1989 TV Movie) is #78, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) is #2 and The Pink Panther (1963) is #3. 

In December, we’ll tease our campaign for 2025. The series of posts we’re about to embark on was inspired by a very popular Digging Star Wars post earlier in 2024 that wasn’t a Henry Mancini and Phil Meets the Movies post. And the timing next year is practically begging for us to go there. And we will. Together. 

Till then, listen to more Hank and come back before the year’s out to see where we’re headed.