Mona Lisa (2:44)

In this song, Nat King Cole compares his love to the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. The Mona Lisa is famous for her smile and her mystique, as the portrait has become one of the most famous works of art in history.

This song was written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston for the movie Captain Carey, U.S.A… It won an Oscar for Best Song.

Before this big hit Nat King Cole was better known as a pianist. As a result of the success of this recording he became recognized as a vocalist.

This soundtrack version by Nat King Cole spent 8 weeks as #1 in the Billboard chart in the USA in 1950.

In 1987, this was used as the theme of the British film Mona Lisa.

Livingston told American Songwriter Magazine July/August 1988 the story behind this song: “There was a picture called OSS, which took place during World War II, and Alan Ladd was in a little Italian town where the clandestine radio was, and they needed a song to warn them that the German patrol was coming. There was this blind accordion player who wasn’t blind playing on the street and every time he saw the Germans coming he would play a certain melody, so we wrote ‘Mona Lisa’ and they said that it sounded Italian and they liked it. Then they called us and said they had changed the title from OSS to After Midnight and we had to write a song with that title. They loved title songs because it sold their picture. So we threw away the lyrics of ‘Mona Lisa’ and wrote ‘After Midnight.’ A month later we picked up Variety and read where Alan Ladd’s new picture was going to be called Captain Carey, USA.