The Moon of Manakoora
"The Moon of Manakoora" is a popular song written by Frank Loesser and Alfred Newman for the 1937 Paramount film The Hurricane starring Dorothy Lamour. Lamour sang the song in the film and also made a commercial recording of it.
The song "The Moon of Manakoora" is considered a standard and was Loesser's first success as a lyric writer.
Manakoora, loosely translated to English, is "witchcraft", derived from "mana" meaning "magic" and "koora/kura" meaning "lore" or "school" or "body of knowledge".
Other recordings
The song has been covered by many other artists, including:- The cast of TV series Glee
- Ambrose and His Orchestra
- Australian jazz vocalist Janet Seidel
- The Norman Luboff Choir
- Andy Williams
- The Ames Brothers
- Chet Atkins
- Stanley Black
- Frankie Carle
- Benny Carter
- Frank Chacksfield
- Bing Crosby – The Crosby version was recorded on January 21, 1938, with John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra for Decca Records and reached the No. 10 position in the charts in 1938.
- Vic Damone
- Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
- Percy Faith
- Benny Goodman
- Burl Ives
- Harry James
- Kana King
- Andre Kostelanetz
- Gene Krupa
- Harry Leader
- Guy Lombardo
- Arthur Lyman
- Henry Mancini
- Tony Martin
- Felix Mendelssohn’s Hawaiian Serenaders
- Buddy Merrill Orchestra
- Vaughn Monroe
- Alfred Newman
- Les Paul and Mary Ford
- Sonny Rollins
- Wayne Shorter
- The Ventures