"Wild is the Wind" mandolin

[jefflester]

I was listening to Nina Simone's "Wild is the Wind" album the other day (not having ever heard it before) and the title track came on with the line "You touch me, I hear the sound
of mandolins" without any sound of a mandolin. I looked up the song and it was the title track from a 1957 movie written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington and sung by Johnny Mathis. David Bowie also did a version.

So is there any version that actually features a mandolin?

[Hudmister]

The power of the "sound of mandolins" regarding romance is not universal but it seems to work for Venetian gondola musicians and has found its place in many literary references. Actually having mandolins playing while Nina sang those words might not have gone over all that well. I know people who do not care for the sound of a mandolin. my brother for one, who says it must be an acquired taste. Having mandolins playing at that point in the song seems an obvious choice so maybe some recording executive or Nina made the artistic decision to let the reference alone be sufficient.