THAT'LL DO

I haven't seen the beloved family movie Babe (1995) or its somewhat darker sequel Babe: Pig in the City (1998) with a charming pig in the title role, but watching the latter surely would have given me at least one nice surprise, ie. a beautiful ballad sung by Peter Gabriel. Oh, it's actually written by Randy Newman -- admittedly it does sound like a Randy Newman song. I have a deep respect for him both as a "pop" musician and as a screen composer.

After seeing the release info here with apparently a false list of instruments (just tin whistle and brass, it says), I was all the more rewarded by the song itself. It has an elegant, delicate orchestration featuring softly played strings, brass and piano, plus a bit of Uillean pipes played by Paddy Maloney of the Chieftains. The producer Bob Ezrin has worked, among many other big names from Alice Cooper to Taylor Swift, with Pink Floyd (The Wall, A Momentary LoR, The Division Bell) from where he's probably best remembered to the prog community. The production is very pleasant.

So, Peter Gabriel's role in this song is limited to singing, but he sure sounds good on this one. The combination of the peaceful orchestration and his warm, unique voice works brilliantly. No wonder Gabe has used this rock-free approach in his own discography as well, and Randy Newman is easy to see as one of his [latter-day] influences. Newman's songwriting here is as good as always, perhaps bordering on being sentimental and syrupy but not crossing the line. This is a fine movie song indeed. If it appears at the end of the film (does it?), it would have ensured me leaving the cinema with a happy feeling.