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Live in London, in 1983.
MONA LISA
"Mona Lisa" is an Academy Award-winning song written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston for the Paramount Pictures film Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950). The soundtrack version by Nat King Cole spent 8 weeks as number 1 in the Billboard chart in the USA in 1950. Also, Cole's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992.[1] In 1987, it was used as the theme of the British film Mona Lisa. An uncredited version of Mona Lisa plays in the background of one scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954).
Various artists, including Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and Nat King Cole's daughter Natalie Cole, have released cover versions of this song. Bruddah Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole) also covered the song on the album Alone in IZ World.
A rockabilly version of "Mona Lisa" (b/w/ "Foolish One") was released by Carl Mann on Phillips International Records (#3539) in March 1959 and reached as high as #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Conway Twitty recorded a version of "Mona Lisa" in February 1959 but planned to release it only as an album cut (on an EP and an LP by MGM Records). Sam Phillips signed Carl Mann to record his version of the song after the Twitty version began getting radio play in early 1959[2]. This was the most successful single in Mann's career. The melody is slightly different, and the lyrics are also mostly the same as in the original version by Nat King Cole, though a few more phrases are added in that elaborate more on the girl he likes.
MONA LISA
"Mona Lisa" is an Academy Award-winning song written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston for the Paramount Pictures film Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950). The soundtrack version by Nat King Cole spent 8 weeks as number 1 in the Billboard chart in the USA in 1950. Also, Cole's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992.[1] In 1987, it was used as the theme of the British film Mona Lisa. An uncredited version of Mona Lisa plays in the background of one scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954).
Various artists, including Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and Nat King Cole's daughter Natalie Cole, have released cover versions of this song. Bruddah Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole) also covered the song on the album Alone in IZ World.
A rockabilly version of "Mona Lisa" (b/w/ "Foolish One") was released by Carl Mann on Phillips International Records (#3539) in March 1959 and reached as high as #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Conway Twitty recorded a version of "Mona Lisa" in February 1959 but planned to release it only as an album cut (on an EP and an LP by MGM Records). Sam Phillips signed Carl Mann to record his version of the song after the Twitty version began getting radio play in early 1959[2]. This was the most successful single in Mann's career. The melody is slightly different, and the lyrics are also mostly the same as in the original version by Nat King Cole, though a few more phrases are added in that elaborate more on the girl he likes.