The song is perhaps most famously performed by Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Monroe’s character, Lorelei Lee, has been followed on a Transatlantic ocean liner by a detective hired by her fiance’s father, who wants assurance that she is not marrying purely for money. He is informed of compromising pictures taken with a British diamond mine owner and cancels her letter of credit before she arrives in France, requiring her to work in a nightclub to survive. Her fiance arrives at the cabaret to see her perform this song, about exploiting men for riches. Diamonds are an element in another story line in the film, in which Lorelei is given a diamond tiara by the mine owner, in gratitude for her recovering the photographs. In a later scene, Jane Russell, who played opposite Monroe, sang “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” in court, while pretending to be Lorelei.
Most of the song in the film is Monroe’s own voice but she needed help in two phrases – “These rocks don’t lose their shape, diamonds are a girl’s best friend”, and at the beginning with a series of high-pitched “no’s”, all of which were dubbed in by the soprano Marni Nixon.
The number was later re-shot in CinemaScope, to be used as part of a CinemaScope demonstration held on the Fox lot in March of 1953. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck told “Daily Variety” that it only took 3-1/2 hours to shoot the number in CinemaScope versus four days for the original film version. The public finally saw the CinemaScope version ten years later when it closed Fox’s documentary tribute to Marilyn, however, this has not been released on DVD or VHS.
The song was listed as the 12th most important film song of all time by the American Film Institute.
Monroe’s rendition of the song has been considered an iconic performance and has since been copied by other entertainers ranging from Madonna and Kylie Minogue to Geri Halliwell and Anna Nicole Smith. Madonna’s video “Material Girl” uses a similar set and costumes for the singer and her male dancers.
The French are glad to die for love.
They delight in fighting duels
But I prefer a man who lives
And gives expensive jewels.
A kiss on the hand
May be quite continental,
But diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
A kiss may be grand
But it won’t pay the rental
On your humble flat
Or help you at the automat.
Men grow cold
As girls grow old,
And we all lose our charms in the end.
But square-cut or pear-shaped,
These rocks don’t lose their shape.
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
Tiffany’s!
Cartier!
Black Starr!
Frost Gormham!
Talk to me Harry Winston.
Tell me all about it!
There may come a time
When a lass needs a lawyer,
But diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
There may come a time
When a hard-boiled employer
Thinks you’re awful nice,
But get that ice or else no dice.
He’s your guy
When stocks are high,
But beware when they start to descend.
It’s then that those louses
Go back to their spouses.
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
I’ve heard of affairs
That are strictly platonic,
But diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
And I think affairs
That you must keep Masonic
Are better bets
If little pets get big baguettes.
Time rolls on,
And youth is gone,
And you can’t straighten up when you bend.
But stiff back
Or stiff knees,
You stand straight at Tiffany’s.
Diamonds! Diamonds!
I don’t mean rhinestones!
But diamonds are a girl’s best friend.