"Moonriver"
(Mancini/Mercer)

 

This cover of the classic Breakfast At Tiffany's song was recorded with producer Steve Lillywhite in March 1994 at a b-sides session for the "Hold On To Your Friends" single (studio unknown). "A Swallow On My Neck" was also recorded during that session, but would not appear on the latter single.

 

short version {3:19}
• 7" and cassingle of "Hold On To Your Friends"
• cassingle of "Now My Heart Is Full"
• cd-single of "Hold On To Your Friends" in "CD-Singles 91-95" box set only
"The HMV/Parlophone Singles '88-'95" album
extended version {9:38}
• 12" and cd-single of "Hold On To Your Friends"
• cd-single of "Now My Heart Is Full"
"The World Of Morrissey" album
"The HMV/Parlophone Singles '88-'95" album
"Very Best Of Morrissey" [remastered 2011]

 

This song has never been performed specifically for radio, television or the web.

 

The song has been done at each and every one of the 18 concerts given on the 1995 Boxers tour, and never since.

live Blackpool 8 February 1995 {3:03}
"Introducing Morrissey", a live concert on video
live London 26 February 1995 {?:??}
"Vauxhall & I" album, 20th anniversary 2-cd edition

 

No demos or studio outtakes of this song have leaked to the general public at this point in time.

 

Quotes

Morrissey on Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's "Moon River": "A lot of the versions one knows are very cabaret-ish, if that's the word, which suits me fine. I'm fond of the Shirley Bassey version, of course, but to me the most familiar recording, the one I grew up with, was Frank Sinatra's which I thought was very sad. But then of course the song is very sad, though that tends to be overlooked in some of the more triumphant recordings of it. It's possible that most people look on it as a sweet, simple lyric and don't dwell upon the words, which are depressing really: 'Moon river... I'm crossing you in style someday'. The fulfilment promised in the song is always in the future, so it has this never-finding, ever-reaching feel. It's hard to sing only in the sense that you realise you're more familiar with it than you perhaps thought. And it's a song which our parents knew - it brings a previous generation to mind - which can tend to make you nervous." (Interview published in the 16 June 1994 issue of The Independent, so two days after Mancini's death).

In an interview given to KROQ's Modern Rock Live in 1997, he said "It does mean a great deal to me. A very passionate song. I always found it a very passionate song and very lonely. I don't know why, because I never really understood it, to be honest. But, always a very lonely sound."