What is meant by "My Huckleberry Friend" in the song "Moon River"?
by 
Ed the Jetpacking Headbanger
ANSWERS: 4
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A popular theory is that it is a reference to Huckleberry Finn and Moon River is actually the Mississippi River. However, I read that Mercer (songwriter) and his friends used to pick huckleberries on the riverbank, so the term was a term of endearment regarding his old, childhood friends.
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I agree with Kdmichaels. Just wanted an excuse to post this:
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My guess would be it refers back to Huckelberry Fin from Tom Sawyer book...Huckelberry was sort of a "fair weather friend" meaning he was your friend when all was going well but not around if things started going bad. I have kind of wondered that myself from the song, and this is the only explination I know of...a fair weather friend
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The voice in the song and his or her "huckleberry friend" are two "dreamers off to see the world" by floating along "Moon River"---either literally or figuratively. So, the first answerer's reference to Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer is clearly correct. Could "Moon River" be the Mississippi? More colloquially, the term "huckleberry" has come to be used, in the Eastern US courtesy of the late Phil Rizzuto, to describe, in a non-pejorative way, a coworker or colleague who does or says something foolish. A "huckleberry friend", then, is a sort of simple, naive co-adventurer of the type that looks for the pot of gold at the "rainbow's end".
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