For your listening pleasure in the Henry Mancini household, according to daughter Monica: "Beatles, Beatles, Beatles."
Just because their dad was a famous film composer didn't mean that Monica Mancini and her twin sister were limited to a steady listening diet of the dreamy "Moon River" or the hipper "Pink Panther" theme — just a couple of the well-known hits by the prolific Henry Mancini.
Whether it was the Fab Four or the Rolling Stones, "Dad wanted to always keep on top of musical trends, so he listened to everything, and so did we," said Monica, 51. Now a professional singer, she's performing some of her father's songs during a multimedia show called "Mancini at the Movies" that's currently on tour.
All that at-home musical inspiration worked: From 1952 until his death in 1994, Henry Mancini was the go-to guy for movie music. He wrote songs and instrumental scores for hundreds of films and TV shows, including "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Days of Wine and Roses," "The Great Race," "Victor/Victoria," "Peter Gunn," "The Glenn Miller Story," "10," "The Thorn Birds" and many more.
And just try to find someone, of any age, who can't hum the "Pink Panther" theme.
Mancini was nominated for 18 Oscars and won four, and picked up 20 Grammy awards out of 72 nominations.
"Mancini at the Movies" highlights more than Henry Mancini films, however, and won't be a Natalie/Nat King Cole kind of pairing — Dad was a composer, not a singer.
During a phone interview from her Studio City, Calif., home, Mancini said her father actually had "very little to do with why I started singing."
The vocal genes and inspiration in the family belong to her mother, Ginny O'Connor, a studio singer who sang with Mel Torme and on variety shows with notables like Dinah Shore, Red Skelton and Danny Kaye.
Monica started doing film studio work at age 14 and has recorded with such musicians as Kenny Rogers, Nelson Riddle, Michael Jackson, Placido Domingo and Dolly Parton and on soundtracks for such movies as "City Slickers," "Batman" and "Armageddon."
Her solo career began when she was asked to sing at tribute concerts after her father's death.
Monica, whose sultry voice lends itself to pops-orchestra music, has performed with symphonies in Chicago, Dallas, Seattle and London, and at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall.
She's also released three albums: "Monica Mancini," which featured her father's most popular songs and coincided with a PBS special, "Monica Mancini: On Record"; "The Dreams of Johnny Mercer," which included Mercer tunes arranged by Barry Manilow; and, most recently, "Cinema Paradiso," a collection of songs from both classic and more recent movies.
For "Mancini at the Movies," in addition to warbling her father's standards like "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses," Monica sings ballads from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Dumbo" and other non-Mancini films.
Monica said that if her father were still alive, he would "certainly be writing music."
Before he died, she said, he had been asked by Tim Burton to do the music for his quirky film "Ed Wood."
She noted that the U.S. Postal Service is issuing a postage stamp with her father's likeness in April, to coincide with his 80th birthday and the 40th anniversary of "The Pink Panther."
Along with the "Peter Gunn" theme, which Monica called "one of the most copied riffs of all time," the "Pink Panther" theme is especially timeless, she said.
"It you haven't heard 'Pink Panther' sometime, then you're dead," she said with a laugh.
"My father was a great master of melody," said Monica. "He had a real impact on the way people see a film.
"I couldn't be prouder singing my dad's music," she added. "His talent aside, he was a really decent and wonderful human being. And that's what comes through in his music — his humor and humanity."