“Two for the Road” was the first song I ever wrote for Henry Mancini – in 1967 – and it is both his and his wife Ginny’s favourite of all his songs. I first met Henry back in 1963, under somewhat unlikely circumstances. I had just written the song “If I Ruled the World,” and the first American singers I wanted to have hear the song were Sammy Davis, Jr. and Tony Bennett. Sammy happened to be starring at the London Palladium for the first time (he was a sensational success). I went to meet him at the Mayfair Hotel, where he always used to stay. His Monte Carlo Suite contained everything except a piano. “There’s one down the hall,” said Sammy. The next suite was called the Mancini Suite, and contained not only a piano, but the great Mancini himself. And so, at our very first meeting, I had the dubious honour of auditioning a brand-new and very difficult song for the biggest star in London before the undisputed maestro of Hollywood music. Nervous making? Try it sometime. Four years later, in Hollywood, Henry called me to invite me to write “Two for the Road” with him, which was happily destined to be the first of many collaborations between us.