Fly Me to the Moon

On this, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and the man's first step on the moon, we're all still a bit Moonstruck (1933, by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow). We've learned that the 1953 Academy Award nominee and best selling record, The Moon is Blue, was wrong, at least up there. And that because there are polar ice caps on the moon, the Johnny Mercer/Henry Mancini song from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Moon River could in fact be true.

Even though Fly Me to the Moon was written by Bert Howard in the 1954, prior to Sputnik and the space race, it was a best selling record in the sixties for several major artists. That is, it became somewhat of an anthem for the Apollo space program. Apollo 8 actually did a lunar orbit and return to earth in 1968, as did Apollo 10 just a couple of months before Apollo 11's landing and that first Moonwalk. The Apollo program continued through Apollo 17 in 1972.

We've not yet made the Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer song from 1934, Moon Country (Is Home to Me) a reality, but space exploration continues. And just last week I heard talk of the possibility of moon flights to look at the possibility of settlement of the moon. Who knows what is in our futures as we look up at the moon in wonder.