"Vanilla Sky" is a song written and recorded by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

for the 2001 film '' of the same name''.

Composition and recording

McCartney was in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

working on his album ''

Driving Rain ''Driving Rain'' is the twelfth studio album by English musician Paul McCartney, released on 12 November 2001 as a double LP, a single cassette, and single CD. Background Following the example of ''Run Devil Run (album), Run Devil Run'' brisk pr ...

'' when director

Cameron Crowe Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American journalist, author, writer, producer, director, actor, lyricist, and playwright. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, for wh ...

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 ruiseacting 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

The ex-Beatle 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 An ''amuse-bouche'' (; ) or ''amuse-gueule'' (, ; ) is a single, bite-sized'' hors d'œuvre''. Amuse-bouches are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons but are served free and according to the chef's selec ...
”. 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 Paul 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”.

Release

The song was nominated for a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

for

Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, for an

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed th ...

and for a

Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Song The Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Song is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Winners and nominees 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s See also *Academy Award for B ...

, winning the latter. A live version of the song is featured on the 2002 live album ''

Back in the U.S. ''Back in the U.S.'' (subtitled ''Live 2002'') is a double live album by Paul McCartney from his spring 2002 Driving USA Tour in the US in support of his 2001 release '' Driving Rain''. It was released with an accompanying DVD to commemorate h ...

''.

References

Paul McCartney songs 2001 singles 2001 songs Songs written by Paul McCartney {{2000s-rock-song-stub