Conceived amidst conflict, the title theme for the 1944 Twentieth Century Fox film Laura was composed almost as an afterthought. According to author William Zinsser in his book, Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs, director Otto Preminger had chosen Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” as a theme for Laura, but composer David Raksin felt it did not suit the character. Raksin was given the weekend to come up something new. By Sunday, with nothing satisfactory on paper, he read a “Dear John” letter from his wife, and the haunting melody seemed to write itself.

Shortly after Laura was released, Abe Olman of Robbins Music asked Johnny Mercer to write lyrics for Raksin’s theme. Although Mercer had seen the film, he confessed that he really didn’t remember the tune. Olman provided Mercer with the music and advised him that the title had to be “Laura.” After a few weeks, Mercer grew to love the song and completed the lyrics. In 1945 five separate recordings of “Laura” appeared on the pop charts with the Woody Herman and His Orchestra’s rendition becoming a million-seller hit:

• Woody Herman and His Orchestra (Woody Herman, vocal, #4)
• Johnnie Johnston (with Paul Baron and His Orchestra, #5)
• Freddy Martin and His Orchestra (#6)
• Jerry Wald and His Orchestra (Dick Merrick, vocal, #8)
• Dick Haymes (with Victor Young and His Orchestra, #9)

In 1946 “Laura” made it to number one on the Hit Parade for 14 weeks and five years later Stan Kenton and His Orchestra made it to #12, featuring Art Pepper’s alto sax.

Laura, starring Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb, Dana Andrews, and Vincent Price has enjoyed great popularity and is considered one of the best-scripted and wittiest examples of the 1940’s and 1950’s film noir wave. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Actor (Webb), Best Director (Preminger), and Best Screenplay, and won for the category Best Cinematography, Black-and-White. Oddly enough, in retrospect, the score went unacknowledged.

The sophisticated dialogue and stylish atmosphere, in juxtaposition with the underlying themes of murder and betrayal, make the film particularly intriguing. In his book Great Hollywood Movies, Ted Sennett says of Laura, “…its principal fascination lies in the many perverse and distasteful implications that are concealed beneath its surface.”

Raksin’s theme and variations are played throughout the film and, with a few exceptions, constitute the soundtrack. Film critic Roger Ebert comments, “That Laura continues to weave a spell--and it does--is a tribute to style over sanity. No doubt the famous musical theme by David Raksin has something to do with it. The music lends a haunted, nostalgic, regretful cast to everything it plays under, and it plays under a lot.”

Indeed, in a self-conscious gesture, the film’s characters even refer to the soundtrack theme. Detective McPherson (Andrews) enters Laura’s apartment with her mentor Waldo Lydecker (Webb) and her fiancee Shelby Carpenter (Price). McPherson turns on the phonograph and plays “Laura.”

Lydecker: “Would you mind turning that off?”
McPherson: “Why, don’t you like it?”
Carpenter: “It was one of Laura’s favorites, not exactly classical, but sweet.”

Nearly two decades after winning the “Laura” debate with Preminger, Raksin further demonstrated his leadership skills becoming President of the Composers and Lyricist Guild of America (1962-70). In that capacity he took a delegation of American composers to Brazil for a popular song festival where, upon request, he sang “Laura” for an audience of 18,000, adding a Portuguese finale!

When Olman asked Mercer to add lyrics to “Laura,” Mercer was faced with a double challenge. He would not only have to write quality lyrics for a complex and established song but also pen words that would perpetuate the weighty intrigue of a character with whom the public was already acquainted. Mercer created what many feel is an example of his finest work, immortalizing a tune that might otherwise have drifted into obscurity.

Mercer’s lyrics extend the feeling of mystery and intrigue in the introductory verse,

“You know the feeling of something half remembered,
Of something that never happened, yet you recall it well.”
...

and subsequently by describing Laura through a series of elusive attributes: a face in the misty light, footsteps down the hall, a floating laugh, and as a woman on a passing train. With no variations and just a sixty-two-word refrain, the lyrics are handled economically as well as effectively.