live at Istanbul International Film Festival on March 2007. Theme by "The Pink Panther", performed by Luca Ruggero Jacovella and Yasemin Sannino.
Meglio Stasera (known in English as It Had Better Be Tonight) is a 1963 song with music by Henry Mancini, Italian lyrics by Franco Migliacci and English lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was composed for the 1963 film The Pink Panther. In the film, Fran Jeffries sings the song while slowly dancing around a fireplace at a ski lodge in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, where all the principal players of the film are gathered. In addition to the vocal performance, instrumental portions of the song appear in the film's underscore from time to time, sometimes as an intro into the main "Pink Panther Theme".
The song is a candombe, a genre of popular dance music from Montevideo, Uruguay, and the candombe's requisite drummers can be seen at one point in the film. The arrangement is highly reminiscent of "Tamboriles" (J. Mateo - G. Brum) or "Retirada de Asaltantes con Patente 1932" (Manuel Perez) as recorded by Romeo Gavioli.
Versions
The song has been recorded in a number of versions:
The Italian version performed by Fran Jeffries that appears in the film, but not on the soundtrack record album.
An instrumental that resembles the underscore of Fran's rendition. This version is on the soundtrack album.
A group vocal with only vaguely related English lyrics, and it can be heard in the background during the fancy dress ball / costume party whilst the attempted robbery is taking place. This version is also on the soundtrack album.
Another Italian version, arranged by Ennio Morricone and performed by Miranda Martino, in 1963 (on the compilation album Da Hollywood a Cinecittà). He later also did an instrumental version on compilation albums.
A version of the song appears in another Sellers/Blake Edwards/Mancini collaboration; the 1968 film The Party.
Other singers to subsequently record the song include Sarah Vaughan (on her 1965 album Sarah Vaughan Sings the Mancini Songbook) and Lena Horne.
Michael Bublé sings a version of the song on his 2007 album, Call Me Irresponsible. (This arrangement is actually an adaptation of the Lena Horne musical arrangement.)
John Barrowman started singing the song on his 2008 tour in England.
Accordionist, Frank Marocco, recorded the song together with "Quando, Quando", as part of a two-song medley in his CD, "Beyond the Sea".
Frank Marocco's arrangement of "Meglio Stasera" appears in one of his sheet music book/CD combinations, titled "Latin Rhythms".
A Chill-style remake of this song was done by Italian group Mondo Candido. It appears on the mix album Buddha Bar IV.
A mambo-style version of the song was recorded by the swing revival group Lee Press-on and the Nails for the album El Bando en Fuego.
A version of the song was recoded by Mic Gillette on his "Ear Candy" CD that features him playing Trombone, Flugelhorn and Trumpet.
Lyrics
Here is the beginning of the song, in the original Italian followed by a literal translation, and the first two lines of the "official" English words which, curiously, contain another Italian expression, which translates as "do it right away", and which does not appear in the actual Italian lyrics.
However, all the versions carry the same underlying meaning of "Let's make love tonight, because who knows what will happen tomorrow."
Meglio stasera, che domani o mai,
Domani chi lo sa, quel che sarà?
...
Better tonight, than tomorrow or never,
Tomorrow who knows, what will be?
...
Meglio stasera, baby, go-go-go,
Or as we natives say, "Fa' subito!"
...
The full Italian version of the song:
Meglio stasera, che domani o mai,
Domani chi lo sa, quel che sarà?
Non mi dire d'aspettare,
Il domani che verrà.
È una porta che tu chiudi,
Fra me e te.
Se stasera ti decidi,
A rispondermi di sì,
I domani che verranno,
Li dedico solo a te.
Meglio stasera, che domani o mai,
Domani chi lo sa, quel che sarà?
Nasce il giorno e il giorno muore,
E la notte porterà,
L'incertezza del domani,
Chi sa, chi sa?
Basta un desiderio solo,
A non farti riposar,
È una pulce sul lenzuolo,
Che dormire non ti fa.
Meglio stasera, che domani o mai,
Domani chi lo sa, quel che sarà?
(from Wikipedia)
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I think she actually started singing too early.
UrsusProblemus 9 months ago
süper yaa
laedrizar 2 years ago
its great
kubeedeh 3 years ago
I like this version a lot.
tatya222002 3 years ago
brava senora sannino
grazie senore jacovella
PANZER692 4 years ago