Mancini was born Enrico Nicola Mancini in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the steel town of West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. His parents emigrated from the Abruzzo region of Italy. Mancini's father, Quinto, was a steelworker, who made his only child begin flute lessons at the age of eight. When Mancini was 12 years old, he began piano lessons. Quinto and Henry played flute together in the Aliquippa Italian immigrant band, "Sons of Italy". After high school, Mancini attended the renowned Juilliard School of Music in New York. In 1943, after roughly one year at Juilliard, his studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the army. In 1945, he participated in the liberation of a South German concentration camp.
Mancini recorded over 90 albums, in styles ranging from big band to classical to pop. Eight of these albums were certified gold by The Recording Industry Association of America. He had a 20 year contract with RCA Records, resulting in 60 commercial record albums that made him a household name composer of easy listening music.
Mancini's range also extended to orchestral and ethnic scores (Lifeforce, The Great Mouse Detective, Sunflower, "Tom and Jerry: The Movie", Molly Maguires, The Hawaiians), and darker themes ("Experiment In Terror," "The White Dawn," "Wait Until Dark," "The Night Visitor").
Mancini was also a concert performer, conducting over fifty engagements per year, resulting in over 600 symphony performances during his lifetime. Among the symphony orchestras he conducted are the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He appeared in 1966, 1980 and 1984 in command performances for the British Royal Family. He also toured several times with Johnny Mathis and with Andy Williams, who had sung many of Mancini's songs.[citation needed]
Mancini had experience with acting and voice roles. In 1994 he made a one-off cameo appearance in the first season of the sitcom series Frasier, as a call-in patient to Dr. Frasier Crane's radio show. Mancini voiced the character Al, who speaks with a melancholy drawl and hates the sound of his own voice, in the episode "Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast?" Mancini also had an uncredited performance as a pianist in the 1967 movie Gunn, the movie version of the series Peter Gunn, the score of which was originally composed by Mancini himself.
Mancini was nominated for an unprecedented 72 Grammys, winning 20 Additionally he was nominated for 18 Academy Awards, winning four. He also won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for two Emmys.
Mancini won a total of four Oscars for his music in the course of his career.
Mancini died at the age of 70 in Beverly Hills/Los Angeles, California of pancreatic cancer. He was working at the time on the Broadway stage version of Victor/Victoria. At the time of his death, Mancini was married to singer Virginia "Ginny" O´Connor, with whom he had three children. Ginny Mancini went on to found the Society of Singers a non profit organization which benefits the health and welfare of professional singers worldwide. Additionally the Society awards scholarships to students pursuing an education in the vocal arts and holds the annual Ella Awards.
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers(ASCAP) Foundation "Henry Mancini Music Scholarship" has been awarded annually since 2001.
I Miss You
Henry Mancini Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
If you make the claim
That no puzzle ever puzzles you
Here is one that needs evolving
Here's a guessing game
That should be a snap for you to do
I'll give you three guesses who loves you
Not your mother who likes to baby you so
And not the girl at home you used to know
Oh no, there's somebody special who needs you
Together or apart
Bet you don't need three guesses and not even two
To know that I'm the one sweetheart
There's somebody special who needs you
Together or apart
Bet you don't need three guesses and not even two
To know that I'm the one sweetheart
In Henry Mancini's song "I Miss You," the singer presents a little guessing game, a riddle to be solved by someone who fancies themselves as an expert in puzzle-solving. The puzzle is about the identity of someone who loves the listener unconditionally, who has been loving them since the beginning, and who has a special place in their heart. The singer suggests that this person is not the listener's mother, who coddles them, or the girl from their hometown. Instead, the puzzle is for the listener to understand that the one who needs them, the one who cares for them the most, is the one speaking to them, the one in love with them.
The song expresses love and longing, the desire to be close to the listener, and the feeling of missing them. The singer creates an engaging puzzle and leads the listener to the conclusion that the one who loves them is right in front of them. The song's melancholic melody and the lyrics' romantic tone create a mood that is both reflective and forward-looking as the singer seeks to solve the puzzle of their love.
Line by Line Meaning
If you're good at riddle-solving
If you're skilled at solving complex problems
If you make the claim
If you assert
That no puzzle ever puzzles you
That no puzzle is too difficult for you to solve
Here is one that needs evolving
Here's a puzzle that needs to be solved
Here's a guessing game
Here's a game of guessing
That should be a snap for you to do
That should be easy for you to do
I'll give you three guesses who loves you
I'll give you three chances to guess who loves you
Who's loved you right from the start
Who's loved you from the beginning
Not your mother who likes to baby you so
Not your mother who likes to treat you like a baby
And not the girl at home you used to know
And not the girl you used to know at home
Oh no, there's somebody special who needs you
No, there's someone special who needs you
Together or apart
Whether together or apart
Bet you don't need three guesses and not even two
I bet you don't need three or even two guesses to know
To know that I'm the one sweetheart
To know that I'm the one, my dear
There's somebody special who needs you
There's someone special who needs you
Together or apart
Whether together or apart
Bet you don't need three guesses and not even two
I bet you don't need three or even two guesses to know
To know that I'm the one sweetheart
To know that I'm the one, my dear
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Flamingo Writer
I love this song so much. I used to watch the movie a lot as a kid when I had it on VHS. Despite having a lot of flaws, I adore this song. It makes me think of my father who passed away a few years ago. I miss you so much, Daddy.😢❤
Cockerspanielfan 56
Me too and I still have the dvd copy of it. It still under the other dvds we have. We have a lot of dvds, it’s going to take a while to find it. And sorry bout your dad passing away, I bet he was a good man.
Flamingo Writer
@Cockerspanielfan 56 He sure was. He and I would watch tv shows and movies, eat, shop, and do almost anything together. He was also what got me into doing my writing and I hope to create a magical girl/boy and fantasy series. I’ve been doing a lot of this since I was a little girl. He’s also what got me into my journeys to into making my main female character have a relationship with her Daddy like I did. I am currently writing this on Wattpad, and I’m still continuing it.
Jeffrey Williams
I'm really sorry for your lost
Glitch Jr
My deepest condolences my friend.
J
Yes!
I lost my father 8 years ago
Miss him every day
This sing resonates with a lot of kids if not many girls
Every child deserves to have a father
However harsh the movies criticisms are justified definitely have to consider that one soul out there who’s going through something much like Robyn
Vi melody
I can’t believe I haven’t heard of this movie until a few days ago. I would’ve loved this growing up and the song is already so special to me.
Cockerspanielfan 56
That’s good to hear Vi, I loved this movie since I was a child. I rewatched it yesterday, it’s been so long since I seen it, I almost forgot what happened during the movie. And what surprised me as a child and still does is Tom and Jerry talking, cause they have never talked before. In the cartoons, they were usually mute.
Jeffrey Williams
My Childhood Memories from 2000's watching this movie for the first time at my grandparents house 🏠 on video tape 📼
fawfulthegreat64
Don't care what anybody says about this movie being god-awful, it's really not. This and A Troll in Central Park are both movies I loved to death growing up and was sad to find how much they're hated online, especially by people like Nostalgia Critic. What a beautiful song.