This story first appeared in the Feb. 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Every song — even the ones that get nominated for an Oscar — begins with a single note. Sometimes the rest of the tune floods into a musician's head in a tidal wave of creativity; other times it's more like a trickle. Below, THR talks to the nominees for best original song about how they wrote their numbers, what inspired them and the sometimes-painful process of recording the songs. Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois, "Lost Stars" from Begin Again "Danielle and I [members of the '90s band The New Radicals] always wanted to make a segue into film, but we wanted it to be something that was different and had something to say. I got a call from John Carney, the director — he got my number from Bono — and he started telling me about this film that he wanted to make about how important music is to our lives but how it seems to be changing and moving to a place we don't recognize. I said, 'Will music be important in it?'
He said, 'Yes, it'll be the heart and soul of the film.' Common, with John Legend, "Glory" from Selma "Ava DuVernay is someone I got to meet at Sundance in 2012, and she eventually cast me in Selma, which is how I first came to be a part of it. But as I went through the process as an actor, the film really touched me, so Ava said, 'Do you want to do some music for it?' And I said, 'Yes!' I'm a hip-hop artist, [but] I didn't think it would be appropriate for a film that's about Dr. King and the civil rights movement to have a rap — it just didn't feel like during the film I would want to hear rap. That's how I felt. Once I laid my vocals, we sent it over. At that point, Ava said, 'I like this, but we still need more. We need something like "We Are the World." ' I was like, 'Oh man, that's depressing. "We Are the World"? Like, do you understand what you just asked for?' But she was talking about just a song that had some type of spirit to it but still could feel worldly." Shawn Patterson, "Everything Is Awesome" from The Lego Movie
"I was going through a very ugly divorce when I wrote that song. All of us, I'm assuming, have gone through horrible breakups at some point. So part of what we do, I guess, with our tools and what we feel and have studied, is we create. I wrote pages and pages and pages of lyrics, trying different concepts. There were definitely elements of darkness seeping into my lyrics — sarcasm, heavy f—ing sarcasm. And I'm like, 'Hold on. Don't get too sarcastic in this part.' That's why I had pages and pages. It was very therapeutic, in many ways." Julian Raymond, with Glen Campbell, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" from Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me "During the making of the film [a documentary about Campbell's battle with Alzheimer's], Glen had a particularly bad day, and he said to me: 'I wish everybody would quit talking about this Alzheimer's thing. I don't know what they're making such a big deal about. It's not like I'm going to miss anybody anyway.' So I thought, 'I'm not going to miss you.'
It triggered something in me. It just takes that spark. Recording the song had to be very simple because of Glen's condition. [I fed him the song] a couple of words at a time, holding a sign in front of him. It took four and a half hours to get a two-and-a-half-minute song." Diane Warren, "Grateful" from Beyond the Lights "A friend of mine [and I] were having dinner last year, and she said, 'I have the movie that you're going to win an Oscar for.' I go, 'I'm a six-time loser [the last time was in 2002 for Pearl Harbor]. I don't know if I could win one of these things.' She arranged for me to see the movie and I loved it, and I just kind of came up with something. I came up with the chorus. This movie is really about someone finding her own voice, and I wanted to write a song that really spoke of that."There was a collective “ugh” that hit the Internet the day “The Lego Movie” was announced as something that was actually going to happen. It was the type of “ugh” that seems only reserved for the filmography of Adam Sandler and movies based on maritime warfare board games.
On the surface, this reaction is understandable. There are a lot of dumb movies and, without context, the idea of an entire movie based on Lego just seems dumb. Now, I had the opposite reaction, only because it’s my job to be fully aware that Phil Lord and Chris Miller were set to direct the film –- two men who eschew “dumb” and have everything to lose by making a terrible movie at this white-hot, still-early stage of their careers. My expectations were actually unreasonably high for “The Lego Movie,” which looks ridiculous as I write out this sentence. Regardless, this was my mindset before I saw “The Lego Movie.” “The Lego Movie” exceeded my expectations in every way and it is unbelievably clever. (Honestly, it’s probably too clever for children: everything just comes so fast, it was hard for me to even keep up with all that’s going on, and I’m someone who understands all of the references. For a child, it’s probably the equivalent of dumping a silo of Skittles over his or her head.
In other words: he or she will like it a lot.) Again, I’m not surprised that Lord and Miller made a good movie. Gosh, I remember dreading the day, late August of 2009, when I had to see what looked like another throwaway kids movie, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.” Instead, Lord and Miller built this fascinating world based off a book that’s only 30 pages long (I own the book and just counted) and that mostly consists of pictures. Their follow-up wasn’t quite an “ugh” movie when it was announced, but people were scratching their heads at the idea of an updated version of “21 Jump Street.” Now, people can’t wait to see this summer’s sequel (also directed by Lord and Miller). And it’s no surprise that a sequel to “The Lego Movie” has already been green-lit with Lord and Miller again at the helm. Look, for anyone that follows me on Twitter, you probably know that I like Lego. The thing is, I wasn’t a huge Lego person as a child. A few months ago, as a lark, my girlfriend and I bought a Lego set and built it at a local Upper East Side bar while drinking cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon (I know, I know).
But, now I’ve become addicted. (I just spent every moment of my free time over the last few days building a Millennium Falcon. I might need an intervention. Yes, this is a call for help. It took two days, but the Lego Millennium Falcon is complete. Which means my life is now complete. — Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) February 4, 2014 But, having said that, I certainly had no interest in watching a bad movie about Lego. The most interesting and unexpected aspect of “The Lego Movie” is the ability to crossover between very popular fictional worlds. The story focuses on a non-descript construction-worker Lego named Emmet (Chris Pratt), who finds himself on a mission to save the world from the evil President Business (Will Ferrell). Along the way, Emmet encounters a slew of characters famous in the cultural zeitgeist –- which is unbelievably fun to watch. We live in a world in which we will never see Iron Man (the rights owned by Disney) and Wolverine (Fox) in the same movie.
We will never see Spider-Man (Sony) team up with The Fantastic Four (Fox) as he does so often in the comic books. I’ve been playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes on Playstation just because it’s so fun to see all of these characters in the same screen together. Okay, so, there are no Marvel heroes in “The Lego Movie,” (this is a Warner Bros. movie and theatrical rights are still theatrical rights, unfortunately) but everything else seems to be fair game. Hey, look, it’s Batman (Will Arnett), Superman (Channing Tatum), Wonder Woman (Cobie Smulders) and Green Lantern (Jonah Hill) all on the screen together. In a theatrical movie! (Sorry, Green Lantern fans, this appearance will not make you feel better about the bad 2010 movie -- he’s portrayed as a doofus in “The Lego Movie.”) This is a movie where Gandalf and Dumbledore and Shaquille O’Neil all interact. This is a movie where a giant movie franchise, not owned by Warner Bros., is represented. I really want to mention what movie franchise to make my point, but I won’t, as not to spoil the surprise.