"Vanilla Sky" is a song written and recorded by Paul McCartney for the 2001 film of the same name.^[1]

Composition and recording

McCartney was in Los Angeles working on his album Driving Rain when director Cameron Crowe came by to ask if he would write a song for his new movie.

He showed us about a half-hour of and they look very intriguing with Tom [Cruise] acting his heart out. I said “What’s the title?”. He said “Vanilla Sky”. I said “Oh, that’s the nice title” and immediately you start thinking or rhymes with sky- fly… You know, it starts to kick off into something doesn’t look too difficult.

- Paul McCartney

McCartney says he got inspiration from a waiter in a restaurant:

Before the first course he brought something we hadn’t ordered. He said “Here’s amuse-bouche”. I said “What is he talking about? Music bushi?”. My limited knowledge of French I kind of worked out that he meant like a sort of palate pleaser or something. So that became the first line of the song- “The chef prepares a special menu”. It’s gonna be “The chef prepares amuse-bouche”, but I never even pronounce that well I work in the song.

It only took McCartney about a week to finish the track:

I just recorded it and had Cameron over and said “What do you think of this?”. He said “I love it”.^[2]

Release

The song was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song,^[1] for an Academy Award for Best Original Song and for a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Song, winning the latter.

A live version of the song is featured on the 2002 live album Back in the U.S..

References