Track Listing

1. Pink Panther Theme
2. It Had Better Be Tonight [Instrumental]
3. Royal Blue
4. Champagne and Quail
5. Village Inn
6. Tiber Twist
7. It Had Better Be Tonight [Vocal Version]
8. Cortina
9. Lonely Princess
10. Something for Sellers
11. Piano and Strings
12. Shades of Sennett
13. Return of the Pink Panther, Pts. 1-2
14. Greatest Gift (Instrumental)
15. Here's Looking at You Kid [*]
16. Dreamy [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32840 in Music
• Released on: 2001-03-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Import, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack
• Original language: English, Italian

Customer Reviews

Fran Jeffries Sang "It had Better be Tonight" in the film
Actually, that was Fran Jeffries who sang that version of "It Had Better be Tonight" in the film. She played the role of the "Greek" Cousin. Visit this link for an excellent biography and discography:

http://www.swinginchicks.com/workinitfordaddy.htm

It received a lot of top 40 radio play after the film release. Don't know why it has not appeared on any of the compilations.

Mancini's finest score now gets what it deserves
Arguably Mancini's finest film score now gets the sound and packaging it deserves. RCA really disrespected Mancini's scores in their earlier CD configurations, with terrible sound and flimsy booklets. The Buddha remasters are terrific and the original LP liner notes are included along with some contemporary notes. Now that they've done this title (and "Peter Gunn"), I hope they get around to Mancini's other memorable works.

Interesting New Tracks, But Otherwise Great Lounge Music....
I believe that this and the soundtracks to *Breakfast at Tiffany's* and *Charade* might well define the sounds of sixties films for me. That they're all by the same composer merely surpises me more, as I'm perpetually impressed by the range of styles Henry Mancini is capable of--invoking an enormous range of emotional responses in his listeners.

Here, you'll find great upbeat tunes such as "The Tiber Twist," "It Had Better Be Tonight," "Something for Sellers," and "Shades of Sennett." Not many of them come quite close to the liveliness of the *Breakfast at Tiffany's* soundtrack--opting instead for a more low-key, European style instead of the lively latin-esque style of many of *Tiffany's" pieces. Nevertheless, the slower style works perfectly here.

The other slower instrumentals here *do* surpass those of some of his other works, in my opinion. "Royal Blue," "Village Inn," and "Cortina" are all perfectly gentle, jazzy and altogether lovely.

I owned the cassette version of this soundtrack years ago. It did not include the four "bonus tracks" featured here from 1974's *Return of the Pink Panther,* which I'm not sure add much to this already great album. "Dreamy" and "The Return of the Pink Panther" seem to fit the atmostphere set by the other pieces well enough, but "The Greatest Gift" seems ridiculously airy and romantic in comparision to the others. "Here's Looking at You, Kid," although a great song, is practically disco. It sounds more like a song from the soundtrack of any '70s film with Pam Grier and seems very out of place in this otherwise jazzy, European-styled album.

Despite its new incongruities, this is still a great soundtrack--perfect for the Henry Mancini fan as well as any fan of the sounds of sixties films