I was toying around with "best Tom Hanks movies" and "best movie songs" as potential topics for blog posts, and it occurred to me that the That Thing You Do track is the perfect bridge between the two. In fact, all things considered, this might be the very best song in movie history.
Consider that the track had to be....
a) believable as a mid-60's, Beatles-esque pop hit
b) catchy enough to stand on its own as a song
c) catchy enough that the audience doesn't get sick of hearing it so often during the movie
d) ...yet not SO catchy that it doesn't sound so polished that these random guys couldn't have come up with it. To paraphrase David Mitchell, it basically had to sound simple but not so simple as to call attention to its simplicity.
TTYD was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar in 1996, but lost to "You Must Love Me," from Evita. That's one of the low-key worst results in the last 25 years of Academy history. Put it this way....You Must Love Me wasn't even on my radar if I'd made that "best movie songs" post 200 entries long.
Consider that the track had to be....
a) believable as a mid-60's, Beatles-esque pop hit
b) catchy enough to stand on its own as a song
c) catchy enough that the audience doesn't get sick of hearing it so often during the movie
d) ...yet not SO catchy that it doesn't sound so polished that these random guys couldn't have come up with it. To paraphrase David Mitchell, it basically had to sound simple but not so simple as to call attention to its simplicity.
TTYD was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar in 1996, but lost to "You Must Love Me," from Evita. That's one of the low-key worst results in the last 25 years of Academy history. Put it this way....You Must Love Me wasn't even on my radar if I'd made that "best movie songs" post 200 entries long.
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