Notablog

Song of the Day: Rear Window (“Lisa”) [YouTube link], composed by Franz Waxman, is an original cue from the wide-ranging soundtrack to this voyeuristic, suspenseful 1954 thriller (one of my all-time Hitchcock favorites). The film stars James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, and the always hilarious Thelma Ritter. The soundtrack includes many popular songs of the day, though Waxman contributed the opening and closing themes as well as this lovely ballad. This theme emerges slowly over the course of the film as the Composer (one of those folks identified through our protagonist’s rear window) improvises his way to the completion of the piece. Check out other renditions of this song, including an orchestral Victor Young version and a solo piano version [YouTube links].