Moon River

MP3 Download

My cover of the classic 1961 song, Moon River. I'm singing a duet with Abby Strickland to a karaoke piano version of the song. I wrote additional parts for violin, guitar, and flute.

MOON RIVER

Moon river,
wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style
some day.
Oh, dream maker,
you heart breaker.
Wherever you're goin',
I'm goin' your way.

Two drifters,
off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world
to see. . .
We're after the same rainbow's end.
Waitin' 'round the bend.
My huckleberry friend.
Moon river and me.

LYRICS

Everyone knows Moon River! But here are a few details you may not know.

It's a waltz! A slow one, but a waltz nonetheless, in 3/4 time. Just count the beats to yourself — 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 — and you'll see that it is so. I have a special affinity for waltzes, and have added sections in 3/4 time to a number of my songs (like the bridge in Claudia).

The title — Johnny Mercer originally titled the song, Blue River, and used that name in the lyrics. But when he discovered there was another song with that title, he changed the title to Moon River, which is so essential to the feeling of the song as we now know it. There are a zillion blue rivers, but only one "moon river"!

"My huckleberry friend" — At the end of the song, there is a somewhat mysterious phrase: "my huckleberry friend". Most people presume it's a reference to Huckleberry Finn, with Tom Sawyer then being the one saying "my huckleberry friend", and referring to their adventures together on the Mississippi River. Mercer knew that would be the common interpretation, and that was an acceptable interpretation to him. But his actual meaning was a personal, private memory of a close friend of his childhood who went with him to pick huckleberries down by the river in Savannah, Georgia.

"two drifters" — The "two drifters" in the song can be interpreted in two ways. The obvious one is that the two drifters are the singer and the river. So the song makes the river a character: a drifter (by virtue of the nature of a river), a travelling companion, and (as the one making those travels possible) also a dream maker and a heart breaker. But the song can also be understood as a love song, where the "two drifters" are the lovers. That was the context in the movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's, for which the song was written.

In my version of Moon River, by making the song a duet, I play with both meanings . First the man sings (by himself) to the river. Then the woman sings (by herself) to the river. Then they both sing together about (and as) the "two drifters".

MUSIC

Arrangement — I felt the karaoke piano accompaniment was nice:

but could be improved upon. First, I changed the sound of the piano in subtle ways, making it sound a little more like a honky-tonk piano, just a teeny bit out of tune:

Then I wrote parts for violin, guitar, and flute, to create a much fuller arrangement. The instruments take turns coming in (over the basic piano track), one at a time: first the violin, then the guitar, then the flute. In the third section, all the instruments come in together in a very full way, and there is also a second violin part with its own melody, to add to the richness of the sound:

Abby — Abby Strickland is an amazing singer. She has sung with me on my songs, Space Girl 2 and Didn't Say. Moon River is one of her favorite songs, too, and she joins me here for a duet of this beautiful song. It has been such a delight to sing it with her, and to listen to her sing it so beautifully. Thank you, Abby!