Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera

Subject: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: InOBU
Date: 06 May 01 - 10:08 PM

Hi Folks: Anyone have the words to Que Sera, Sera, for the Popular Halfwit? His wife used to sing it as a child on her swing... - Cheers, Larry

Subject: Lyr Add: QUE SERA SERA (Jay Livingston, Ray Evans)
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 May 01 - 10:22 PM

QUE SERA, SERA
(written by Jay Livingston & Ray Evans)

When I was just a little girl,
I asked my mother, "What will I be?
Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?"
Here's what she said to me:

Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be.

When I was just a child in school,
I asked my teacher, "What shall I try?
Should I paint pictures?
Should I sing songs?"
This was her wise reply:

Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be.

When I grew up and fell in love,
I asked my lover, "What lies ahead?
Will we have rainbows day after day?"
Here's what my lover said:

Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be.

Now I have children of my own,
They ask their mother, "What will I be?
Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?"
I tell them tenderly:

Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be.

Recorded by: Doris Day
From Alfred Hitchock's movie
"The Man Who Knew To Much"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Justa Picker
Date: 06 May 01 - 10:23 PM

What Ever Will Be, Will Be.

When I was ust a little girl,
I asked my mother what will I be?
Would I be pretty, would I be rich?
here's what she said to me:

Que sera sera,
What ever will be, will be,
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera sera,
What will be will be,

When I grew up and fell in love,
I asked my sweetheart, what lies ahead?
Will we have rainbows day after day?
Here's what my sweetheart said:

Que sera sera,
What ever will be, will be,
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera sera,
What will be will be,

Now I have children of my own,
They ask their mother, what will I be?
Would I be handsome, would I be rich?
I tell them tenderly:

Que sera sera,
What ever will be, will be,
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera sera,
What will be will be,

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Justa Picker
Date: 06 May 01 - 10:24 PM

(Dang...you type fast than me, Sorch!) :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Justa Picker
Date: 06 May 01 - 10:25 PM

(And your lyrics are more complete.)


(Clones, delete mine w/thanks.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: InOBU
Date: 07 May 01 - 07:59 AM

Yer all great, thanks again, Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From:
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 12:42 AM

I went looking, and found that the song was written by Jay Livingston & Ray Evans and was written for Doris Day in the movie The Man Who Knew Too Much. James Stewart was the husband in this 1956 remake of Hitchcock's 1934 movie. The original was a book written by author GK Chesterton in his 1922 book. For a quick review of the book

GK Chesterton - The Man Who Knew Too Much

I'll have to look up that book now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: masato sakurai
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 12:52 AM

You can listen to Doris Day singing HERE.
~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Amos
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 04:37 PM

But why?

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 06:00 PM

Eight years have passed, and I've decided to revive this thread because I'm interested in this song.

Here's a link to a Wikipedia article about it.

que

The article says that the phrase 'que sera sera' occurs in no Romance language. It even has a spreadsheet to prove it.

However, I was reading a mystery last week that was set in French Louisiana. A character used the phrase in the story. So is it Cajun French, a dialect likely to be unknown to Wikipedia?

I know the song was written by Livingston and Evans for the movie by Hitchcock. I'm interested in what kind of song they were trying to recreate. In fact, I came across a MIDI of it recently, and I thought, 'That's strange! I never noticed that song is in 3/4 and has a Mediterranean feel to it.'

As a kid, I heard this song many times, and I remember Doris Day's cheerful, antiseptic rendition, a rendition from which all hint of the Italian had been banished. Just now I found a YouTube of her singing it, and it's even worse than I remembered. Cold, brash, invariant - arrgh.

In the clip from the movie we hear a mandolin for a few seconds. (Kinda funny because there's no mandolin in the room.) Does anybody have any techniques for making this song sound Italian or Mediterranean if I'm playing it on the piano and don't have a mandolin?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 06:29 PM

Eight years on is a long time for a correction, but...

I don't think The Man who Knew Too Much had anything to do with Chesterton's book of the same name. More's the pity maybe. (I don't mean it wasn't an OK film, both times - but I'd love to see a good Chesterton film.)   That link George Seto gave to a review of the book has gone walkabout - but here is a link to the online text.
.............................

Here's a link to Che Sera Sera with Doctor Who and Rose and assorted monsters ... (sung by "Pink Martini") Very strange.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Jan 09 - 12:26 AM

Using Google Book Search, I found several examples of "Que Sera Sera" being used as a motto. Unfortunately, it never identifies the language. I believe mottos used by the British nobility were usually Latin or Norman French, e.g., "Dieu et mon droit," "Honi soit qui mal y pense," "Nemo me impune lacessit," etc.

Here are a couple of the oldest examples I could find:

From An Introduction to Heraldry by Hugh Clark (London: Henry Wasbourn, 1829), page 312, in the section "A Dictionary of Mottoes":

Que sera, sera. What will be, will be; and Principia obsta. Oppose evils in their commencement. Folkes.

From Railroad guide, from London to Birmingham: Containing Picturesque, Historical, Legendary and Statistical Sketches of Its Vicinity (London: Joseph Thomas, 1839)

[Inscription on a memorial tablet in the church at Watford, Herts.:]HARRIET,
WIFE OF RICHARD FORD,
BORN, JULY 19, 1807,
DIED, MAY 14, 1837,
QUE SERA SERA.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Jan 09 - 12:14 PM

Thanks, Jim. That is nifty information.

I don't know what role Livingston & Evans thought their song would play in Hitchcock's movie, but I doubt if they visualized a woman in a New Look suit sitting at a grand piano.

I've looked at a plot summary for the movie, which seems to be set in Morocco and London. How does an Italianate song fit in?

Don't ask me to watch it. Recently my husband bought a DVD of Hitchcock's 'Charade,' and I agreed to watch it. I thought it would never end.

In my opinion, DVD's have one real advantage over movie houses - we can stop a DVD, get up, walk around, and escape the over-stimulation for a while.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 30 Jan 09 - 11:33 AM

For all you Doris Day fans, one of my all-time favorite lines was from the late pianist-raconteur Oscar Levant. While a guest on the old Jack Paar "Tonight" show, he uttered, "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin."

She began her professional life as a big band singer and had married twice before she began playing the innocent, the Pollyanna or the squeaky clean object of Rock Hudson's advances in a string of popular movies. Through the 1950's she was the Eisenhower era's favorite girl singer/actress and a perfect fit for the times. In later life, retired from show business, she has been an animal rights advocate living in the Big Sur, Monterey County area.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 31 Jan 09 - 11:08 AM

I'm a member of a capitalist culture, and I'm always happy when an honest enterprise succeeds. Doris Day is not my favorite singer, but being Doris Day is a great improvement over organized crime or drug dealing as a way of life.

That said, does anybody have any ideas about the tradition which inspired 'Que Sera Sera'? The language of it? An authentic way to accompany it? (I have the chords already.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Genie
Date: 31 Jan 09 - 12:37 PM

In the movie "The Man Who Knew Too Much," the story is contrived rather obviously just for the purpose of having Doris Day sing a song. (There's a theatre term for that, but it escapes me at the moment.) Her character just happens to be an entertainer, who just happens to have a gig (a one-song gig?) that's stuck into the middle of the movie, having basically nothing to do with the mystery plot.   

As for the language origin, if it's Italian, someone can't spell. "Que será será" would be Spanish; "Che sarà sarà" would be Italian," but they'd probably say "Che cosa sarà sarà," I think. Am I right?
"Que sera sera," could also be French.   
I sing this song often at retirement residences in the US, because it's an easy and well-known sing-along and popular with the residents. The Spanish-speaking residents 'claim' it as being a Spanish title. Even if it's not a common Spanish idiom.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jan 09 - 05:37 PM

In italian you can also say "che sarà sarà", it's tha same

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Genie
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 02:09 AM

Isn't that what I said, GUEST?   

Just saying it wouldn't be spelled "Que sera sera" in Italian. : )

The French would probably say "Ce que sera sera" in stead of "Que sera sera," but I'm not really bothered by a song phrase or title not being a common linguistic idiom.   I'd say an awful lot of song titles and hook lines are not common idioms (unless they become so because of the song).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Monique
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 03:39 AM

In French it'd be "Ce qui sera sera" -and we don't say that, we say "advienne que pourra"= "let come what can/may come"- . Btw, the song has been translated into French and you can see the lyrics and hear it sung by Luis Mariano here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: folkypaul
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 12:17 PM

isn't there a male version of this song that starts "When I was just a little boy"

Paul O

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Genie
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 12:59 PM

Merçi, Monique.


folkypaul, IIRC, it was Andy Williams who recorded the "little boy" version contemporaneously with Doris Day's version.   And the "teacher" verse lyrics are often adapted to the particular singer.    I believe Doris Day sang "should I paint pictures, should I write songs." But I hear it sung "should I write books?" or "should I sing songs" etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Marje
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 01:27 PM

Wouldn't the Spanish be "Lo que sera sera"? (or do I mean "Lo qui.."?)

I've heard it alleged that although everyone knows what it means, "Que sera sera" is not actually any known language, and nothing in this thread so far contradicts this.

Marje

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Monique
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 03:19 PM

Yes, it'd be "Lo que será será" in Spanish, there's no "qui". It'd be "Çò que serà serà" in Occitan. As far as I know all Romance languages need a word meaning "what/ the thing" before "que sera sera" or whatever is said and however it's spelled

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 11:58 PM

'not actually any known language, and nothing in this thread so far contradicts this'

Au contraire, Marje. It may be medieval French or it may be Cajun. :)

I played my piano newly-developed piano version for my husband yesterday, and he liked it. I was a little nervous about it because he had said he'd always disliked the song.

So that was a small but happy moment.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Marje
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 12:37 PM

Medieval French - I don't think so. Cajun, I have to admit, is a closed book to me, but the song doesn't have much of a Cajun sound about it. Isn't the whole point of Cajun words to sing them in a sort of muffled nasal grunt, so that nobody has the faintest idea what you're singing?

No, you're not getting me with "Cajun" either. Leenia, I think you're bluffing!

But I was wondering if someone would say it was Esperanto. It's typical of Esperanto to have a construction that almost means something in several languages but isn't quite right in any of them.

Marje

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 12:51 PM

I figured it out!!!

It's in Hollywood Italian!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Monique
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 02:47 PM

I checked and it's not Esperanto either, future tense in Esperanto ends in 'os and "what" isn't "que" but "kia/kio/kion" -I know absolutely nothing about the differences. Maybe Dave has the most sensible solution!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Monique
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 03:00 PM

And it's not Catalan, Romanian, Corsican, Sardinian...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 03:09 PM

Here's where the Cajun idea came from:

'However, I was reading a mystery last week that was set in French Louisiana. A character used the phrase in the story.'

The medieval French idea is just a joke.

As an American, I never learned a lot about European languages. For example, I was just reading a novel where a Roman police inspector travels to Venice. A number of Venetians are talking in his vicinity, and he cannot understand them. I was surprised to discover that Italian can be that multifarious.

Last year I was on the island of Stromboli, and I took a picture of the map of Stromboli. The map has everything written in standard Italian (which I believe is the dialect of Rome) and in the dialect of Stromboli. They are noticeably different.

To sum up - there are a lot more languages out there than we think.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Monique
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 05:18 PM

Standard Italian is Tuscany dialect (Florence area). here is a map of Italy showing the Italian dialects.
There're still some 6,000 languages around the world and we're losing a lot of them. "Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages Book by Daniel Nettle, Suzanne Romaine; 2000." a very interesting book on the topic!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Feb 09 - 10:44 AM

I stand corrected. Florence, not Rome.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 06 Feb 09 - 07:24 PM

I have come to the inescapable conclusion that this is much like trying to decipher and literally translate French idioms - literally impossible.

The song gives its own definition - good enough for me.

Subject: Lyrics: Que Sera, Sera - Portugese phrase
From: Genie
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 04:33 PM

A friend of mine who was born in Angola, so had Portugese as her native language, tells me that "Que Sera Sera" is not only gramatically correct (and spelled right) in Portugese but is also idiomatically common.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 25 Apr 09 - 12:41 AM

Thank you, Genie! I knew the phrase had to come from somewhere.

I've been singing the song around the house, and it seems to me that the chorus should be sung wistfully, not belted out the way You-know-who did it. For a parent to admit she has no control over what will happen to her child is a sad thing.

Subject: Que Sera, Sera - Portugese title phrase
From: Genie
Date: 26 Apr 09 - 11:55 AM

You're welcome, leeneia.   I was delighted when Maria solved this mystery for me too.

I sing this song very often at nursing homes and retirement communities, because it's such a good sing-along. The melody is catchy and the lyrics are easy to remember, so it's not only requested often but it also gets a lot of participation.
The thing is, my audiences (participants) seem to regard this song, just as they do "You Are My Sunshine," as a happy song, when neither song really is.   Que Sera Sera is very fatalistic, of course. But I guess because the melody sounds light (and you could do a Viennese waltz to it), it kind of feels happy, even though the lyrics aren't.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera -4 Popular Halfwit
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 01:33 AM

Damn! All these years I've been pronouncing it "Queue Sarah, Sarah."


Seamus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: GUEST,Paul
Date: 26 May 09 - 04:38 AM

Hi does anyone know the lyrics that manchester united have put to this song for their champions league match in rome

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: NormanD
Date: 26 May 09 - 08:11 AM

The version of "Que Sera Sera" to die for is the one by The High Keys, recorded in the early 60's. It's an R&B stomper, a cross between Ray Baretto's "El Watusi" and The Isley's version of "Twist & Shout". Complete with a football whistle on the chorus. Fabulous! Knocks Doris Day into a cocked hat.

There was also an earlier, and completely different Spanish song, "Que Sera" which I have on a compilation of Republican songs from the Spanish Civil War.

Norman

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: Monique
Date: 26 May 09 - 02:01 PM

You mean this one?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 May 09 - 02:23 PM

(Que sera in Brasilian Portuguese means 'what is that', or 'what may it be').
----------------------------------

"Que sera sera" first appeared in the film, "The Barefoot Contessa." The family motto of the character played by Rossano Brazzi was "Che Sera Sera," but Herrmann, Evans and Livingston changed it to 'que' because more Americans were familiar with Spanish.
They should have checked because using Que for 'what ever' is pidgin Spanish at best.

Christopher Marlowe, the English playwright, used the phrase in his play "Dr Faustus," 1588: "What doctrine is this? Che sera, sera" (what will be, shall be).

See the Gutenberg online book, "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus."
Doctor Faustus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: Genie
Date: 26 May 09 - 06:52 PM

Interesting, Q.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: NormanD
Date: 27 May 09 - 03:04 AM

Yes, Monique, that is the song. The version I have is a contemporary recording and is credited to simply "Cobla De Barcelona". Any more information on who this band was would be appreciated.

Thanks for posting that website - pity my Spanish is so poor.

Norman

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: MartinRyan
Date: 27 May 09 - 03:19 AM

Googling "cobla de barcelona" turns up a number of sites, including THIS ONE which has details of their album of Spanish Civil War songs, including Que Sera, Sera.

I can have a go at a translation from Monique's link, if there's interest.

Regards
p.s. one of the sites turned up by Google triggered a virus warning.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: Monique
Date: 27 May 09 - 04:07 AM

Norman, I'm sure you saw that the songs in mp3 can be downloaded from "Descargar" > "Himnos y canciones". The Altavoz del Frente site crashed down and was unavailable for many long months. Some pages aren't still re-built so far (or however you say it!)

There's an article in Revista de Folklore (in Spanish only) about the recording. Btw, this is a very interesting Spanish magazine, you can read them all on line, from #0 in 1980 up to now. They don't say anything about who was in la Cobla de Barcelona. I suppose it's just like the recordings by the "Tuna de Córdoba" or "Red Army Choir": they don't give the names of the singers/players.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: MartinRyan
Date: 27 May 09 - 04:17 AM

Thanks for that link, Monique - it might start me reviving my neglected Spanish again!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: Monique
Date: 27 May 09 - 06:29 AM

Martin, then you could be interested in Aragon traditional music
Here is a site where you can order cd's and books about different types of Spanish music (trad, folk, judeo-spanish...)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: MartinRyan
Date: 27 May 09 - 06:46 AM

Muchas gracias, Monique - sitios muy interesante.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: Peter the Squeezer
Date: 27 May 09 - 05:01 PM

Medley of two songs ---

When I was just a little boy,
I asked my mother what will I be,
Will I be handsome, will I be rich,
Here's what she said to me....


You ain't nothing but a hound dog,
Crying all the time .....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Que Sera, Sera
From: Genie
Date: 28 May 09 - 03:43 AM

LOL, Peter!