Song:Que Sera, Sera ( Whatever Will Be, Will Be)
Album:16 Most Requested Songs
Doris Day started out as a big band singer and then became one of the biggest movie stars of the 50s and 60s. She was mostly known for light comedy. But Que Sera, Sera is from the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much. The song was one of her biggest hits and it became her signature song. She was born Doris Kappelhoff Apr. 3, 1924 in Cincinnati. Her father was a music teacher. As a teen, Doris had a dance duo with Jerry Doherty. But she injured her legs in a 1937 car accident. While recovering, Doris sang along with big band music on the radio and she became a big Ella Fitzgerald fan. She took singing lessons and performed on local radio. Bandleader Barney Rapp heard her in 1939 and hired her. He changed her name to Doris Day. He thought Kappelhoff was too long for a marquis. Doris scored her first big hit Sentimental Journey in 1945 while singing for Les Brown. Then Hollywood came calling and Doris made her film debut in the 1948 musical Romance on the High Seas. She replaced Betty Hutton after Betty got pregnant. She made plenty of similar romantic comedy musicals for Warner Bros. and was one of the biggest movie stars of the 50s. Her biggest hit at the time was the 1953 #1 hit Secret Love from the film Calamity Jane. Doris' husband and manger Marty Melcher thought she was typecast at Warners. He wanted her to do more serious films. She left Warners in 1954 and she played singer Ruth Etting in the 1955 film Love Me Or Leave Me. Then she made Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much. Though Hitchcock was told that Doris was mainly a singer, he had seen her in the 1951 film Storm Warning which was about the Ku Klux Klan. So he knew she could do drama. He made her character a retired singer so she could perform in the film. Que Sera, Sera was written by the veteran songwriting team of Ray Evans and Jay Livingston. Evans got the idea for the song from the Italian family motto in the 1954 film The Barefoot Contessa. He decided to change it to Spanish. Veteran film and TV composer Frank De Vol produced the record. Not only did Que Sera Sera top the charts and win an Oscar, but it became Doris' signature song and she used it in films and TV. You can get all her hits on this budget comp. When Rock 'N' Roll became more popular, Doris concentrated more on her movie career. Beginning with Pillow Talk in 1959, Doris made several very successful romantic comedies with Rock Hudson and others. These films haven't aged as well as her earlier Warners films. She stopped recording in the mid-60s. Things fell apart when Melcher died in 1968 and Doris found that he had committed her to do a TV sitcom. She was also forced to declare bankruptcy as he had squandered her money. By the early 70s, Doris retired from performing and attempts to bring her out of retirement have been unsuccessful. She did record the CD My Heart with her music producer son Terry Melcher before his 2004 death. This was released in 2011 and it did well. These days Doris concentrates on her Doris Day Animal Foundation to benefit animal welfare. Here's Doris Day performing Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) in the 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much.
She was very big back in the 50's. I have heard stories over the years of her being abused by the men she knew in her life including her husband Marty Melcher. I also was told she was very close friends with Rock Hudson and may have even known about his homosexuality long before the public was aware of it. She was very talented and did good singing and some good films.
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