Marilyn Monroe? Yes, you read that correctly.
Let’s talk about actors. Actors scoring a hit with a soundtrack song is a relatively common occurrence in the 21st century, especially if you’ve appeared in something made by Disney. Dozens of actors have recently accomplished the feat (I’ve even written about one of them here), helped in large part by the advent of YouTube and streaming counting towards chart placement.
But way back when in the 20th century? Pretty rare actually (unless you’re Barbra Streisand or Bette Midler, although to be fair, both began their careers as singers). Full-length soundtrack albums sold in the bajillions, but singles from those albums sung by one of the actors? Surprisingly, only a small handful made it anywhere on the charts. Even more surprisingly, one of that handful came courtesy of Marilyn Monroe.
You might know a few songs by Monroe: “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend,” “I Wanna Be Loved By You,” “Happy Birthday, Mr. President.” She achieved most of her fame in bright, splashy comedies, but her one and only Billboard bestseller featured in the one and only Western she ever appeared in, the not so splashy River Of No Return. You’d think if she had a hit it would be with a big, glitzy number, or something sexy and vampish, but nope, it’s a spare and sad song. Marilyn doesn’t have the strongest voice, but that attribute actually helps in this case, lending an air of quiet vulnerability to the film’s title track. (It should also be noted that Monroe actually sang all of her own songs in her movies, unlike a great many of her contemporaries who were dubbed over by the incomparable Marni Nixon.)
Released as a single in 1954, “River Of No Return” paddled up to #54 on the pop chart (higher than Julie Andrews, lower than John Travolta), a minor hit for sure, but a hit nonetheless, and a weird little footnote in the annals of both chart history and Marilyn Monroe history.
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My brain glitched for a moment when reading the title because for a half-second I read “Marilyn Manson”! Marilyn Monroe – with you now. She has that Hollywood/Disney affectation even when singing. Haven’t ever really sat down and given her music a listen, but this track is certainly very cinematic.
It would, indeed, be a very weird post if this was about Marilyn Manson 😂
This is gold, Houston! I adore Marilyn; she’s delicious in everything she does and did everything well. There was a lot more to her than many people realize. River of No Return was a great, classic western; the scene with Marilyn and Robert Mitchum hanging on for dear life while on a river raft is pure excitement. I’m beside myself with glee that you mentioned the magical Marni Nixon; I’ll be featuring her in my Birthday Thursdays post on February 22. Thanks for today’s post, Houston. Most enjoyable!
I’m so glad you liked this one! It was quite a surprise to me that Marilyn had a hit song. She was absolutely a marvel. I’ll have to check out River Of No Return as I’ve never seen it. Also, Marni Nixon is criminally unknown. If there isn’t a documentary about her yet, there certainly should be!
Totally agree re Nixon. In my upcoming post about her, there will be a couple of videos where she’s ghost singing for Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Wood and Deborah Kerr as well as an interview about her work. It’s good stuff and I hope people will enjoy it. She was by far the best known and most professional ghost singer in the business.
My curiosity got the best of me and I had to look it up to make sure — I’m kind of shocked that no documentary exists. I look forward to your post!
Thanks! Hope you can stop by.