Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is a song introduced by Carol Channing in the original Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), which was written by Jule Styne (who also wrote the scores for such famed Broadway musicals as Funny Girl and Gypsy) and Leo Robin. It was based on a novel by Anita Loos.

Marilyn Monroe version

Monroe sings the song surrounded by well-dressed men.

The song is perhaps most famously performed by Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Monroe's character, Lorelei Lee, has been followed on a Transatlantic ocean liner by a detective hired by her fiance's father, who wants assurance that she is not marrying purely for money. He is informed of compromising pictures taken with a British diamond mine owner and cancels her letter of credit before she arrives in France, requiring her to work in a nightclub to survive. Her fiance arrives at the cabaret to see her perform this song, about exploiting men for riches. Diamonds are an element in another story line in the movie, in which Lorelei is given a diamond tiara by the mine owner, in gratitude for her recovering the photographs. In a later scene, Jane Russell, who played opposite Monroe, sang "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in court, while pretending to be Lorelei.

Most of the song in the film is Monroe's own voice but she needed help in two phrases – "These rocks don't lose their shape, diamonds are a girl's best friend", and at the beginning with a series of high-pitched "no's", all of which were dubbed in by the soprano Marni Nixon.^[1]

The song was listed as the 12th most important movie song of all time by the American Film Institute.^[2]

Monroe's rendition of the song has been considered an iconic performance and has since been copied by other entertainers ranging from Madonna and Kylie Minogue to Geri Halliwell, Anna Nicole Smith and Thalia. Madonna's video "Material Girl" uses a similar set and costumes for the singer and her male dancers. A decade after Thalia's performance of the song in Spain (see below), her fellow Mexican entertainer, Aida Pierce, co-hosted an episode of Humor es...Los Comediantes dressed in a similar evening gown.

Moulin Rouge! version

The song is also featured in the 2001 film Moulin Rouge!, in which it is sung principally by Nicole Kidman in the role of Satine, the (fictional) star performer of the famous Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris, at the turn of the 20th century. This film version is technically a musical adaptation that director Baz Luhrmann titled "Sparkling Diamonds". Although it consists almost entirely of an adaptation of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", this version differs from the lyrics in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in several ways. For example, it does not include the name Harry Winston in the chant of famous jewelers; rather, Moulin Rouge founder Charles Zidler's name was changed to Harold in the movie, so his name replaces Winston's in the song as "Harry Zidler". Black Starr & Frost-Gorham was known by that name only after 1925, but instead of using their 1875-1925 name of "Black Starr & Frost", their name was replaced in the Luhrmann film by nonsense words (understood by many listeners as "Ross Cole"). And the potentially anachronistic line "help you at the Automat" was altered in the Luhrmann film to "help you feed your pussycat." Additionally, a lyrical snippet from Madonna's song "Material Girl" was worked into this adaptation of the song.

Other versions

• Ethel Merman recorded the song in 1950.
• Lena Horne recorded the song in 1958 for her album Give the Lady What She Wants.
• Julie London recorded the song in 1961.
• Eartha Kitt recorded the song in 1962.
• Emmylou Harris recorded a country/rock version in 1983.
• Thalia performed this song in 1991 on Spanish television.
• Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, dressed as Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, parodied the number in their 1993 BBC special "Gentlemen Prefer French & Saunders".
• Kylie Minogue performed this song in 1995. In 2007 she recorded another version for her movie White Diamond. She also performed the song in 1999 dressed as Monroe for the opening of 20th Century Fox's Australian Studios.
• In 2007, Beyoncé did an updated version for Giorgio Armani's new fragrance Emporio Armani Diamonds in an ad directed by Jake Nava and titled "Can You Resist?".
• Wendi Peters performed a version for BBC Children in Need on 16 November 2007, adding "I am a Material Girl" half-way through, then returning back to the normal song.
• Nicole Scherzinger performed a version for the 2007 CBS special, Movies Rock, which paid tribute to the strong relationship between movies and music.
• T-Bone Burnett's rock version of the song is both campy and cynical, while capturing the essence of the lyric.
• Deanna & The Downbeats, a cabaret-jazz quintet from Portland Oregon, performs a traditional version of the song that segues into a lounge-swing version of Madonna's "Material Girl".
• In the cartoon Hey Arnold, Helga's mother sang "Beepers Are a Girl's Best Friend" for a commercial in the same manner as Marilyn Monroe's performance.
• The scene in which Marilyn Monroe sings the song is parodied in Madonna's song "Material Girl".
• Christina Aguilera also did the song on her first featured film Burlesque. Kristen Bell and Julianne Hough first lip-synched Marilyn's version then Aguilera finished it with her own vocals.

References

1. ^ Prial, Frank J. (March 6, 2007). "Voice of the Many, but Rarely Herself". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/theater/06marni.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/P/Prial,%20Frank%20J.. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 
2. ^ "AFI's 100 YEARS...100 SONGS". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on 2007-10-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20071027165808/http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/songs.aspx. Retrieved 2008-02-19. 

External links

• You Tube Video of Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend
• recording of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" by Ethel Merman from National Public Radio in Windows Media Audio format