BILL MESNIK'S SUNNY SIDE OF MY STREET PRESENTS: QUE SERA SERA BY SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE (EPIC, 1973) #87

This is a difficult artistic puzzle to sort out: a) Why is this, Doris Day’s signature song, the only cover that Sly ever recorded?; and, b), Is its delivery of “cheerful fatalism” a positive or a negative? The motto, cribbed by song writers Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for the Hitchcock film THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, from another film THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA, has a rich history of memento mori application going back centuries, and yet, here it appears in a fresh, compelling funk version for the modern era. It’s a brain teaser.For me it’s all positive, albeit bittersweet. The young woman, voiced by Sly’s sister Rose, asks her mother and lover to allay her apprehensions about the future, and Sly, taking the lead on the response, bursts into an ecstatic response: “Whatever will be, will be…” which turns the angsty inquiry on its head. BE HERE NOW, is the imperative. The future will take care of itself.