Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a song written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston for the 1950 movie Captain Carey, U.S.A. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 1950. The soundtrack version by Nat King Cole spent eight weeks at number-one in the Billboard singles chart in 1950, and Cole's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992.
Various artists, including Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Art Lund, Dennis Day, Harry James, Don Cherry, Hong Kong singer Kong Ling (江玲), and Nat King Cole's daughter Natalie Cole, have made cover versions of this song.
The songwriting duo of Ray Evans (1915 - 2007) and Jay Livingston (1915 - 2001) is well-known for songs composed for movies. Evans wrote the lyrics and Livingston the music. Livingston and Evans won three Academy Awards: in 1948 for the song Buttons and Bows, written for the movie The Paleface; in 1950 for the song Mona Lisa, written for the movie Captain Carey, U.S.A.; and in 1956 for the song Que Sera Sera, featured in the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much. Their song Tammy, for the 1957 movie Tammy and the Bachelor, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. Their Christmas song Silver Bells, written for the 1951 Bob Hope movie The Lemon Drop Kid, has become a Christmas standard. Livingston and Evans also wrote popular TV themes for shows including Bonanza and Mr. Ed. Ray Evans and Jay Livingston are both members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and they each have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
