Wrapping up our week of movie music, today’s classic movie song of the day comes from the original 1964 version of The Pink Panther. No, we’re not talking about that recognizable do do-do, do-do do-do do-do instrumental theme song, but rather a song with lyrics that’s performed in its entirety within the movie. The song is “It Had Better Be Tonight” or, in its original Italian, “Meglio Stasera.”
“It Had Better Be Tonight” was composed by Henry Mancini, who also wrote “The Pink Panther Theme” and the rest of the music in the movie. (Mancini wrote a lot of notable movie soundtracks and movie songs in his day, including “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and “Days of Wine and Roses” from the movie of the same name.) The song’s original Italian lyrics were written by Franco Migliacci; the legendary Johnny Mercer provided the English-language lyrics.
In the movie, singer Fran Jeffries performs the Italian version, “Meglio Stasera,” during a party with all the cast present, including Peter Sellers, singing along and joining a conga line. On the soundtrack album, however, Mancini does the English version of the song with a vocal choir. The soundtrack album (The Pink Panther: Music from the Film Score Composed and Conducted by Henry Mancini) was nominated for a Grammy for Best Album or Original Score. Mancini’s soundtrack was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score; the album itself was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.
The Pink Panther, released in March of 1964 (and four months earlier in Italy, for whatever reason) was directed by Blake Edwards, with a script by Mr. Edwards and Maurice Richlin. It was a comedy about a jewel thief (played by David Niven) and his quest to heist the famous Pink Panther diamond. In addition to Niven, the cast included Robert Wagner, Claudia Cardinale, and Capucine, although the movie was stolen by Peter Sellers’ hilarious performance as the inept Inspector Clouseau. The movie was originally to feature Peter Ustinov as Clouseau and Ava Gardner as his wife, played by Capucine in the final film; Sellers stepped in with Ustinov dropped out and Edwards reshaped the movie around Sellers’ unique comedic talents. That took the focus off the original intended lead (David Niven) but made for a very funny movie that launched an entire franchise revolving around the Inspector Clouseau character.
I have a personal memory of “It Had Better Be Tonight” from when I was just a young pup. My father owned a TV and appliance store in Speedway, Indiana, and also repaired televisions, radios, and stereos—including those huge console models. Back in the repair shop they had a couple of RCA sampler records they used to check out stereos that were there for service, and one of the tracks on one of the albums was Henry Mancini’s orchestral (with chorus) version of “It Had Better Be Tonight.” So I got to hear this one a lot back in the day, and it’s always stuck with me. Pretty good song, that.
(BTW, I did a little Internet research and discovered that the name of the sampler, a 10-LP set, was Stereo Festival, RCA Records PRS 251. “It Had Better Be Tonight” was on the second disc, along with “Baby Elephant Walk” and “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” by Mancini and “Never on Sunday” and “That Old Black Magic” by Ann Margret; other discs featured other artists, including Al Hirt, Eddy Arnold, Harry Belafonte, Chet Atkins, and Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. This probably explains why all those songs are still favorites of mine today.)
And here’s your thoroughly delightful daily bonus video of the day, the original 1964 trailer for The Pink Panther. That animation—and the legendary animated Pink Panther—was by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, which was founded by former Warner Bros. animator Friz Freleng and David DePatie. This was one of their first projects and it really put their studio on the map.
