Songoftheday 3/31/15 - And even though I know how very far apart we are, it helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star...

"Somewhere Out There" - Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram
from the album An American Tail (Original Soundtrack) (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's Song of the Day was a duet from the animated movie An American Tail, which attempted to put Amblin Entertainment (Steven Spielberg's company) on the map aside Disney and the like in 1986. Telling the story of the Jewish migration to America to escape persecution in Russia and Germany but told in the eyes of mice, it was more Yentl then Mickey. For the theme song, rock vocalist Linda Ronstadt was enlisted. Linda had been toning down her sound in the eighties, though her last top-40 pop hit was the remake of "I Knew You When" in 1983. She was paired up with soul/pop singer James Ingram, who had been successful entirely up to that point with collaborations on the pop chart, even with a rare "triad" hit in 1984 with "What About Me?" with Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes. The song they hooked up on, "Somewhere Out There", was written by legendary pop songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil along with film composer James Horner, and produced by Peter Asher, who handled most of Linda's classic recordings....

"Somewhere Out There" went all the way to the runner-up position on the American pop chart in March of 1987, while making it to #4 on the adult contemporary (or "easy listening" radio chart in Billboard magazine. Internationally the record climbed to #2 in Canada and #8 in the UK. It was Linda's biggest hit in over a decade (since 1975's #1 "You're No Good"). The record won Song of the Year and Best Movie/TV song at the Grammys, though it lost the Oscar to Top Gun's "Take My Breath Away".

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Natalie Cole filled in for Linda at the Oscar broadcast in 1987...

And finally, here's Linda live with the song's co-writer Barry Mann...

Up tomorrow: arena rock boys are OK alone.