Yes, late again this week, although with the scary news about Stacey-Lynn's disappearance I think you can agree that we've all had other things on our minds this week. Still, as they say, the show must go on, the rent must be paid and the cats must be fed, so here we go with this week's selection.
It's cheese for so many reasons. A soppy love song? Check. A duet? Check.
Lots of digital piano? Check. From a really cringeworthy movie? Check and check. Yeah, it's that really annoying song from that twice-as-annoying Disney movie, “An American tail”...
Somewhere out there (Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram) 1986
Yeah, I realise we're back in the eighties. I keep tryin' to get out, they keep pullin' me back in! No? Well, okay then. But the 80s was such a time for cheese it's hard not to keep going back there for prime examples, and this is certainly one. There's of course no doubting the star quality and vocal talents of either James Ingram or Linda Ronstadt, but I think it could have hurt their street-cred, if not their actual careers (this DID hit number two, God knows how!) that they took part in this. It's written by that famous composer of film music, James Horner, whose biggest crime to date is writing the godawful “My heart will go on” for Celine Dion
(note to self: check this for future inclusion), although in fairness he's not solely to blame, as he did collaborate with two others on this song.
The music is not bad to be honest, but then it's apparently loosely based on a Beethoven symphony, and we're hardly going to diss the B-Man, now are we?
But the lyric is terribly twee: the idea of two people separated by vast distances but hoping their love will span the gulf is nothing new, and the theme of the song, that the same stars look down on each of them, has also been done before, and better. Of course, the fact that in the film the duet is between a brother and sister, yet the released single is based on two lovers could be seen as slightly controversial --- no? Fair enough then, it's just terribly, terribly cheesy.
Trollheart admits he bought this, though he maintains it was only for his radio programme, as the song was charting and very popular at the time. I, however, have my doubts...