Published 1956 Lyricist(s) Ray Evans | Composer(s) Jay Livingston Language English | |
English title Whatever Will Be, Will Be Genre Popular music, schlager | ||
"Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)", first published in 1956, is a popular song written by the Jay Livingston and Ray Evans songwriting team. The song was introduced in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), starring Doris Day and James Stewart in the lead roles.
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Day's recording of the song for Columbia Records (catalog number 40704) made it to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one in the UK Singles Chart. From 1968 to 1973, it was the theme song for the situation comedy The Doris Day Show, becoming her signature song. The three verses of the song progress through the life of the narrator—from childhood, through young adulthood and falling in love, to parenthood—and each asks "What will I be?" or "What lies ahead?" The chorus repeats the answer: "What will be, will be." It reached the Billboard magazine charts in July 1956. The song received the 1956 Academy Award for Best Original Song with the alternative title "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)". It was the third Oscar in this category for Livingston and Evans, who previously won in 1948 and 1950. In 2004 it finished at #48 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
The title sequence of the Hitchcock film gives the song title as "Whatever Will Be". It was a #1 hit in Australia for pop singer Normie Rowe in September 1965.
Language in title and lyrics
The popularity of the song has led to curiosity about the origins of the saying and the identity of its language. Both the Spanish-like spelling used by Livingston and Evans and an Italian-like form ("che sarà sarà") are first documented in the 16th century as an English heraldic motto. The "Spanish" form appears on a brass plaque in the Church of St. Nicholas, Thames Ditton, Surrey, dated 1559. The "Italian" form was first adopted as a family motto by either John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, or his son, Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford. It is said by some sources to have been adopted by the elder Russell after his experience at the Battle of Pavia (1525), and to be engraved on his tomb (1555 N.S.). The 2nd Earl's adoption of the motto is commemorated in a manuscript dated 1582. Their successors—Earls and, later, Dukes of Bedford ("Sixth Creation"), as well as other aristocratic families—continued to use the motto. Soon after its adoption as a heraldic motto, it appeared in Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus (written ca. 1590; published 1604), whose text (Act 1, Scene 1) contains a line with the archaic Italian spelling "Che sera, sera / What will be, shall be". Early in the 17th century the saying begins to appear in the speech and thoughts of fictional characters as a spontaneous expression of a fatalistic attitude, always in an English-speaking context.
The saying has no history in Spain, Italy, or France, and in fact is ungrammatical in all three of these Romance languages. It is composed of Spanish or Italian words superimposed on English syntax. It was evidently formed by a word-for-word mistranslation of English "What will be will be", merging the free relative pronoun what (= "that which") with the interrogative what?
Livingston and Evans had some knowledge of Spanish, and early in their career they worked together as musicians on cruise ships to the Caribbean and South America. Composer Jay Livingston had seen the 1954 Hollywood film The Barefoot Contessa, in which a fictional Italian family has the motto "Che sarà sarà" carved in stone at their ancestral mansion. He immediately wrote it down as a possible song title, and he and lyricist Ray Evans later gave it a Spanish spelling "because there are so many Spanish-speaking people in the world".
In modern times, thanks to the popularity of the song and its many translations, the phrase has been adopted in countries around the world to name a variety of entities, including books, movies, restaurants, vacation rentals, airplanes, and race horses.
Other uses of the song and phrase
The song is regularly sung at English football matches when a team is progressing to the next round of a competition that will ultimately lead them to Wembley Stadium. The chorus's second line is changed to ‘Que Sera, Sera, whatever will be, will be, we're going to Wembley, Que Sera, Sera’. For many years now, it has been very common for the fans to intentionally mispronouce the words as "Que seras seras" so that they sound like "kiss 'er arse", i.e. "kiss her arse" with a dropped "h". This is done for humoristic effect.
In 1956 "Que Sera, Sera" was the name given to a US Navy C-47 Skytrain which, on October 31, 1956, was the first aircraft to land on the South Pole (Operation Deep Freeze II), commanded by Rear Admiral George Dufek.
In the 1960 film Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Doris Day sings a snippet of ″Qué Será Será″ to her co-star, David Niven, who plays her character's husband.
In 1994, the song was used in the Simpsons episode "Bart's Comet". It is sung by several characters as they wait for a comet to destroy Springfield, only to have it burn up and be no bigger than a Chihuahua's head. It is also featured in the 2005 episode "There's Something About Marrying."
The 2000 Hindi film Pukar has a song, "Kay Sera Sera", based on this.
In 2005, the song was adopted by fans of the Australian football team after the team qualified for the 2006 World Cup finals, changing the lyrics as such: "Que sera sera, Whatever will be will be, We're going to Germany".
The 2009 Said the Whale song "Goodnight Moon" directly references the song's second verse, with the lyrics "Oh que sera sera/ Whatever will be will be/ The future belongs to me/ And I belong to you".
In 2015, the song was used in an anti-smoking public service announcement for the New York State Department of Health.
The 2015 Canadian musical animated short Carface is also set to the song, as performed by a 1957 Chevy Bel Air cartoon character.
Appears in the 2009 indie film "Mary and Max."
Normie Rowe
Australian pop singer Normie Rowe's 1965 recording of "Que Sera, Sera", which was produced by Pat Aulton on the Sunshine Record label (Sunshine QK 1103), was the biggest hit of his career, "the biggest Australian rock 'n roll hit of 1965", and is reputed to be the biggest-selling Australian single of the 1960s. The song was "done in the style of "Louie, Louie" and the manner of "Hang On Sloopy", and given a "Merseybeat" treatment (in the manner of The Beatles' "Twist & Shout"), and was backed by Rowe's band The Playboys. It was paired with a powerful version of the Johnny Kidd & The Pirates' classic "Shakin' All Over", and the single became a double-sided No. 1 hit in most capitals (#1 Sydney, #1 Melbourne, #1 Brisbane, #1 Adelaide, and Perth). in September 1965, charting for 28 weeks and selling in unprecedented numbers, with Rock historian Ian McFarlane reporting sales of 80,000 copies, while 1970s encyclopedist Noel McGrath claimed sales of 100,000. Rowe scored another first in October 1965 when "Que Sera Sera" became his third hit single in the Melbourne Top 40 simultaneously. In 1965 Rowe received a gold record for "Que Sera, Sera" at Sydney's prestigious Chevron Hotel. In December 1965 the master of Rowe's version was purchased by Jay-Gee Records for release in the USA. In April 1966 Rowe received a second gold record for the sales of "Que Sera, Sera". In August 1966 Rowe won Radio 5KA's annual best male vocal award for "Que Sera, Sera". In 2006 Rowe released a newly recorded version, which was released by ABC via iTunes, and later adding "the whole digital mix with a radio mix and a dance mix".
Other versions
Other versions of "Que Sera, Sera" include:
English-language versions
Non-English versions
Instrumental Versions