Doris Day in the early 1950s (from Wikipedia)
Doris Day initially dismissed this song as "a forgettable children's song" and refused to record it for popular release in conjunction with Hitchcock’s movie The Man Who Knew Too Much. It’s a good thing she changed her mind.
“Que Sera, Sera” not only went on to win 1956’s Best Original Song Academy Award, it was also the biggest hit of Day’s recording career and became her signature song. She even reprised portions of it in two later movies: Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960) and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966).
In a 1994 interview available on the liner notes of an Oscar-winning songs compilation, songwriter Jay Livingstone reveals that he happened upon the phrase “Que Sera Sera” in the 1954 movie The Barefoot Contessa. When Rossano Brazzi shows Ava Gardner his house, the gate’s inscription “Que Sera Sera” is highlighted and he tells her it means “whatever will be, will be” and that it’s his family’s motto. The phrase doesn’t actually translate in any language, but… well… whatever… it’s Hollywood!
In recent years, the song has appeared in many television shows and films, including Girl, Interrupted and Nurse Betty. Day, now 87, lives on an 11-acre ranch near Carmel, California, and goes by the name Clara Kappelhoff. Kappelhoff is part of her birth name (Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff), and her Tea for Two co-star Billy De Wolfe gave her the nickname Clara, saying she “looked more like a Clara Bixby than a Doris Day.” It caught on among her close friends, in particular her beloved co-star Rock Hudson.
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