Doris Day’s ‘Whatever will Be, Will Be’. Written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston hit number one on the week beginning 10th August in both the USA and the UK

The year is 1956 and Alfred Hitchcock is making a new thriller, The Man Who Knew Too Little, with support form actors(tress) Doris Day and James Stewart, and the producers insisted that Doris must be given a song during.

Hitchcock, adverse to the idea at first however, agreed to meet with the songwriters, and the three agreed that a song may be most appropriate during a scene in which she puts her son to bed. The songwriters had been watching The Barefoot Contessa featuring Rossano Brazzi and had decided to base a song around the shows motto, ‘Que Sera Sera’. When Hitchcock heard the first few bars he said “Gentleman, I told you I didn’t know what song  I wanted, but this is the kind of song I want”.

The Hitchcock blonde sang it in the film but she was reluctant to release it as a single as she felt it was a children’s song. Her song Que Sera Sera, however, became one of the first ever transatlantic number ones.

Before release, the song was retitled to ‘Whatever Will Be, Will Be’ because unless it was in English it would not be eligible for an Oscar! The song won an Oscar too, much to Cole Porter’s quite public annoyance as he had expected to win. The song was up against ‘True Love’ from the film High Society.

The song later became the theme tune for the TV series, The Doris Day Show. Doris said that the song almost perfectly reflected her philosophy of life, “I strongly believe in the inevitability of everyone’s life pattern. Our destinies are born with us”.

The song has been posted below.