Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Qué Será, Será)

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Whatever Will Be (Qué Será, Será), also called Qué Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be), but widely known simply as Que Sera Sera, is a popular song written by the Jay Livingston (music) and Ray Evans (lyrics) songwriting team.

Published in 1956, it was featured in Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much (which Hitchcock had previously made in 1934) with Doris Day and James Stewart in the lead roles. Doris Day's recording of the song for Columbia Records was a hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom and, from 1968 to 1973, the theme song for the sitcom The Doris Day Show.

The song reached the Billboard magazine charts in July, 1956, and received the 1956 Academy Award for Best Song. It was the third Oscar in this category for Livingston & Evans, who previously won in 1948 and 1950.

Contents 1 Cover versions 2 Trivia 3 The song title 4 See also

[edit] Cover versions

• 1963: The High Keys, with a calypso feel and sports whistle accents, influenced at least two subsequent versions from Earl Royce & the Olympics and Normie Rowe & the Playboys [1].
• 1964: Earl Royce & the Olympics' version was recorded by the Beatles Record producer, George Martin [2] [3].
• 1965: It was a hit in Australia for Normie Rowe & The Playboys.
• 1966: Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band on their Hand Clappin' Foot Stompin' Funky-Butt...Live! album.
• 1973: The funk band Sly & the Family Stone, on their Fresh album .
• 1977: In Canada, a disco-pop style hit for husband-and-wife duo The Raes.
• 1979: Swedish pop and country singer Kikki Danielsson, on her "Rock'n Yodel" album.
• 1985: Ex-New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders recorded a version for his Que Será, Será album.
• 1994: K Cera Cera, a K Foundation (KLF) presentation of The Red Army Choir, was a limited edition single released in Israel and Palestine.
• 2001: Hermes House Band, on their cover album, The Album [4].
• 2005/6: Sampled heavily by Wax Tailor in their song "Que Sera" on the album Tales of the Forgotten.

[edit] Trivia

• 1956: Que Sera Sera was the name given to a United States Navy Douglas DC-3 R4D Skytrain [5] that was used in Operation Deep Freeze II. On October 31, 1956, with a crew of 7, it was the first airplane to land on the South Pole. It is currently (2006) at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida, USA with one wing broken off from Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
• 1960: Doris Day also sings just a few lines of song in the film, Please Don't Eat the Daisies (film). Her character, Kate, is out to dinner with husband, Lawrence. She hears the restaurant playing the music to the song and quietly sings the chorus to him.
• 1966: Doris Day and Aurthur Godfrey (playing her dad in the movie) both sing a few lines as Godfrey strums his trademark ukelele in the film, "Glass Bottom Boat."
• 1989: The song was used in the title sequence of the movie Heathers, with an arrangement by Van Dyke Parks and performed by Syd Straw. The Sly & the Family Stone cover version is also in the film.
• 1995, 2005: The song was featured in The Simpsons episode, Bart's Comet, in which Ned Flanders sang the tune to comfort himself before Springfield was seemingly about to be destroyed by a comet. Ten years later, the song was played again in another episode, "There's Something About Marrying," during Marge's flashback sequence about noticing Patty’s gay activity.
• 1999: The song was used (in Japanese) near the end of the anime movie, My Neighbors the Yamadas.
• 1999: The Doris Day version was played in the movie version of Girl, Interrupted.
• 2002: This song was used in the Gilmore Girls episode "Secrets and Loans".
• 2003: A version of the song performed by Pink Martini was also used in the pilot episode of Dead Like Me.
• 2004: The song was used on the television commercial for the first season of "Desperate Housewives" on Channel 4 in the UK
• 2004: Japanese jazz musician Charlie Kosei is the vocalist for a song entitled "Que Será Será" (lyrics and melody unrelated to the 1956 version) for the video game Katamari Damacy.
• 2005: The name "Que Sera Sera" is used as a title for a song by Valencia, a Philadelphia Punk rock band [6].
• 2006: Que Será Será (House episode) was the title of an episode of House, M.D..
• 2006: The song was used before the penalty shoot out in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
• English football fans often adapt the lyrics of this song when they reach a Wembley Cup final to, "Que Será Será, Whatever Will Be Will Be, We're Going to Wembley, Que Será Será!"

[edit] The song title

There is some doubt about the language of the song's title. According to information on various discussion groups online, the allegedly Italian origin ("Che sera, sera", the family motto of a character in the 1954 film The Barefoot Contessa) is spurious. "Che sera, sera" is grammatically incorrect in any modern Romance language. The Italian would be "Che sarà, sarà", whereas in Spanish it would be spelled "Qué será, será".

There is also a claim (reliable confirmation needed) that it was released in the U.S. under the English title "Whatever Will Be" because the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would consider only English-titled songs for Oscars.

• January 2006: Question and responses from Google Answers
• March 2006: Lengthy English usage group discussion

Here the lyrics of the song:

Que Sera Sera When I was just a little girl I asked my mother, what will I be Will I be pretty, will I be rich Here's what she said to me.

Que Sera, Sera, Whatever will be, will be The future's not ours, to see Que Sera, Sera What will be, will be.

When I was young, I fell in love I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead Will we have rainbows, day after day Here's what my sweetheart said.

Que Sera, Sera, Whatever will be, will be The future's not ours, to see Que Sera, Sera What will be, will be.

Now I have children of my own They ask their mother, what will I be Will I be handsome, will I be rich I tell them tenderly.

Que Sera, Sera, Whatever will be, will be The future's not ours, to see Que Sera, Sera What will be, will be.

[edit] See also

• Lazy Reason
• Laissez-faire

Preceded by "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" from Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

Academy Award for Best Song 1956

Succeeded by "All the Way" from The Joker Is Wild