Breakfast at Tiffany's [Music from the Motion Picture Score]

Original score composed and conducted by Henry Mancini.
Recorded on December 8, 1960 and April 27, 1961. Originally released on RCA (2362).
By 1961, film composer Henry Mancini was already well known in Hollywood for his jazzy, brassy scores to Touch of Evil and Peter Gunn. But it was this effervescent soundtrack for Blake Edwards' adaption of Truman Capote's wistful novella that propelled Mancini into the major league of Hollywood composers. Though there were other jazz-oriented arrangers working in Hollywood at the time, none possessed Mancini's imagination and skill in orchestration. (He was a veritable Berlioz in the way he cast instruments as characters in the story.) Only John Barry could ever match his gift for melody.
The Oscar-winning "Moon River" is a case in point. Toots Thielemans' tremulous, lonely harmonica introduces the simple, near-folk tune, neatly evoking protagonist Holly Golighty's "secret" country roots. Later on, Mancini vividly illustrates urban living itself with the lively mambo "Something For Cat" and a big-band blues, "The Big Blow Out," as well as sleek New York panoramas "Holly" and "Breakfast At Tiffany's" itself, delicious concoctions of voices and strings, trombone and vibes. Culture shock was never so appealing.