I wish I knew more about the contractual terms of this—my impression is they must be pretty tight, not to say positively draconian. Illeana Douglas lip-synchs to it in a key scene from the movie Grace of My Heart (a gem worth tracking down), and that's the last you're ever going to hear of it practically for the rest of your life. Co-written by Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, the (inferior) Costello vocal version of it plays over the end credits and appears exclusively on the soundtrack, notwithstanding that it's the one scene and not the credits crawl that's memorable. There was no YouTube then, but there is now, so you can go visit the clip whenever you like for the full-on effect. Me, there's something inside that has to possess, so I did a little detective work and found that the version I want lives on a cheesy compilation from 1999 called Love Scene: Romantic Movie Music (with songs from other movies like Sleepless in Seattle, Stealing Beauty, and The Commitments). Vigard, a soaps player and lifetime back-bencher, recorded another version in 2004 on her album God, Loves and Angels, which is ... not the original. My connection to this song, and this version, is all about the movie from which it comes, its story and that particular scene. Vigard's performance is exactly right, just tentative and plain enough to sound reasonably like a demo or audition knocked off in the moment, but with strong undercurrents and flashes of emotion that power it and strike hard. Douglas isn't singing, but she's playing it off equally exactly right, so maybe the best way to hear it is in the YouTube clip, and skip tracking down the album which I did all the work of doing for you. Better yet, see the whole movie. It's a thing of beauty.
The sdtk version appeared as the last track on Costello & Bacharach's album, "Painted from Memory." Maybe you'd prefer the live version Costello did around then with pianist Steve Nieve: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDdAA9KLqpY
ReplyDeleteActually, this song has had a long and happy life, having been covered by dozens of singers, including Ausra MacDonald,Bill Frisell, Idina Menzel, Bette Midler, and more. Here's a link to a page about "God Give Me Strength." http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/God_Give_Me_Strength
ReplyDeleteThis is about Kristen's version, not ANY of the other versions.
ReplyDeleteI love Elvis' version, but it's not the original and that's what hasn't had a "long and happy life." It should have appeared on the movie soundtrack. I was very disappointed that it didn't. In fact, I didn't buy the soundtrack because that was the track I was looking for.No other version is discussed in this blog so I really don't understand the comments.
Nor do I understand the compulsion to accept less than what you are looking for. "Perhaps you'd prefer" or "This is almost the same" are lines from salesmen and my answer is always that I'm not interested in almost what I want.
Anonymous II -- thanks for your comment. That is what I was trying to get at with my post. To me, the Kristen Vigard version is simply better than any other and it has been a little odd and interesting that it's so relatively hard to get. I think the first two commenters are missing the point. Thanks for helping me verify.
ReplyDeleteHey gang. I agree completely and after seeing the movie again tonight I did some searching. You can get the exquisite Kristen version from I-tunes for 99 cents. Listening to it right now.
ReplyDeleteGood to know, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI dug up that "Love Scene" CD. It was worth it. I love "Grace of My Heart," and I totally agree with Jeff -- it's worth seeing!
ReplyDeleteHi. I love this song and the movie also, but the link (listen) is broken. It said. sorry this video is not available. Here is a video with the movie scene.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJvKN7MS_9w
Thank you!
ReplyDelete