Henry Mancini: Breakfast at Tiffany's (soundtrack, picture disc) [WAX TIME]

Why you'll love it

This 180g picture disc puts the full score on show, plus a bonus reprise of "Moon River" to close side B. Mancini's music won two Academy Awards, one for the score and one for "Moon River" itself.

This edition

• Picture disc
• 180g vinyl
• Bonus track
• Stereo mix

About the album

Few film scores are as easy to picture as this one: a yellow cab on an empty Fifth Avenue at dawn, Audrey Hepburn in a black dress, a pastry and a coffee at the Tiffany's window. Blake Edwards' 1961 adaptation of the Truman Capote novella gave Henry Mancini the job of making Holly Golightly's New York sound as glamorous as it looked, and he did it with a light touch and a lot of strings.

"Moon River," with Johnny Mercer's lyric, opens the record and comes back as a "Moon River Cha Cha" later on. In between, Mancini switches from lush romance to cocktail-party swing: "Something for Cat" slinks, "Hub Caps and Tail Lights" and "The Big Blow Out" are pure party-scene jazz, and "Latin Golightly" and "Holly" show off the bossa-tinged side of his writing. Mancini composed and conducted the lot himself, and the film went on to five Academy Award nominations.

Mancini became the go-to composer for sophisticated Hollywood, and this score is a big reason why. Breakfast is optional; the record works at any hour.

Also at Kops: more Henry Mancini on vinyl · browse Soundtracks

Tracklist

Listen

On Wax Time (cat# 59203), a reissue of the 1961 soundtrack.