Released 1963 Genre Pop Label Reprise | Format 7" single Length 2:38 | |
B-side "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" | ||
"I See the Moon" is a popular song written by Meredith Willson.
The Mariners, in the United States, and The Stargazers, in the United Kingdom, had the best-known versions. The Stargazers' recording reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in 1954. In taking "I See the Moon" to number one, the Stargazers became the first act in British chart history to reach number one with their first two records to reach the chart. Several singles released in the interim failed to chart. The Stargazers' recording was produced by Dick Rowe, one of eight of his UK chart topping successes in that role.
The Mariners' version, released in 1952, reached number 14 in the United States
A recording by Don Cameron with Morton Fraser's Harmonica Band was made in London on February 17, 1954. It was released by EMI on the His Master's Voice label as catalog number B 10675.
Nancy Sinatra released a version on Reprise Records in 1963.
In 1997, the English actress Phoebe Nicholls (as May Thrace) performed the song with piano accompaniment in an adaptation for television of Ruth Rendell's mystery, May and June. It was described as her character's childhood favourite.
The song is quoting two works by the Italian opera composer Vincenzo Bellini: Ite su Colle, O Druidi from act 1 of Norma, and the overture to I Capuleti e i Montecchi.
The first line of the refrain, from which the title is derived, also matches a nursery rhyme couplet that appears in English as early as 1784 in a work entitled Gammer Gurton's Garland, or, The Nursery Parnassus:
I see the moon, and the moon sees me, God bless the moon, and God bless me!