[4] Doris Day introduced it in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956),[5] singing it as a cue to their onscreen kidnapped son.
[4] The three verses of the song progress through the life of the narrator—from childhood, through young adulthood and falling in love, to parenthood—and each asks "What will I be?"
[4] In 2004 it finished at number 48 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
[9] The Spanish form appears on a brass plaque in the Church of St. Nicholas, Thames Ditton, Surrey, dated 1559.
[14] Early in the 17th century the saying begins to appear in the speech and thoughts of fictional characters as a spontaneous expression of a fatalistic attitude.
He immediately wrote it down as a possible song title, and he and the lyricist Ray Evans later gave it a Spanish spelling "because there are so many Spanish-speaking people in the world".
[17][18][19] In modern times, thanks to the popularity of the song and its many translations, the phrase has been adopted in countries around the world to name a variety of entities, including books, movies, restaurants, vacation rentals, airplanes, and race horses.
After foiling the assassination attempt, Jo and her husband are invited by the prime minister to the embassy, where they believe their young son is being held by the conspirators.
Upon hearing his mother play the familiar song, her son whistles along, allowing her husband to find and rescue him just before he was to be murdered by the conspirators to the assassination attempt.
In 1960's Please Don't Eat the Daisies, she sings a snippet of the song to her co-star, David Niven, who plays her husband.
[25] Versions of the song have appeared on a number of film and television soundtracks, often juxtaposed with dark or disastrous events to create an effect of black comedy.
Previously, the song was featured over the opening and the ending credits of Heathers, a dark teen comedy dealing with murder and suicide.
In Gilmore Girls, the song appeared in a Season 2 episode as a musical cue to juxtapose Lorelai falling through their termite-ridden porch.
On December 21, 1996, it was covered by the Bina Vokalia Children's Choir under the direction of Pranadjaja on Dendang Buah Hati concert.
The phrase appears in an episode of the Netflix show The Umbrella Academy, used by the character The Handler while talking to Five Hargreeves.
[clarification needed] It was paired with a version of the Johnny Kidd & The Pirates' classic "Shakin' All Over", and the single became a double-sided No.
In 1989, a comedy version recorded by "Terence" (John Creedon) in aid of the RTÉ People in Need Telethon reached number 2 in the Irish Singles Chart.
[48] Upon release as a single during the summer of that year, record label Gazell coupled it with the Titus Turner song "Sticks and Stones" on the B-side.