Country-music star Brad Paisley, British pop singer Robbie Williams, rock band Weezer and Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino are the artists enlisted to record the soundtrack to the Disney-Pixar movie “Cars 2,” according to a news release today.
Other music artists featured on the soundtrack are the Japanese pop band Perfume and French superstar Benabar. The “Cars 2” soundtrack will be available June 14. The film will be in theaters June 24.
This is the second go-round for Paisley, who wrote and recorded “Behind the Clouds” and “Lose Yourself” for the original “Cars” movie in 2006.
This time, he worked with Robbie Williams.
Says Lasseter, “Brad and I became close friends during the making of ‘Cars.’ For ‘Cars 2,’ he and Robbie [Williams] have teamed up to do this really cool rock ‘n roll song. It’s something very different from what Brad normally does, but he and Robbie have created a fantastic song that captures the friendship of McQueen and Mater over the end credits.” Adds Paisley, “The song is a rock vocal event with one of the most talented people I’ve ever met, Robbie Williams. It was John’s idea to bring these two worlds together – combining the English and American takes on music. We’re both out of our comfort zone, seeing what happens when you’re forced into going new places, which is really what ‘Cars 2’ is about. It’s totally parallel to the story.”
The song, “Collision of Worlds,” is written and performed as a duet with Paisley and Williams, the talented, award-winning singer/songwriter who has achieved incredible fame as a solo performer and as a member of the group Take That. Williams has sold more than 57 million albums worldwide, and is one of Britain’s all-time top selling recording artists. “It’s an international kind of song that’s inspired very much by the film–it wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the story,” says Williams. “Brad turned up with his guitar and a basic understanding of what he wanted the song to sound like. He played me a few chords and we noodled and twiddled our way into forming this song. It’s back and forth colloquialisms between two different countries speaking the same language and not understanding each other—until now.”
Here’s Robbie and Brad working on the song:
Paisley wrote a second song for the film:
A second song, “Nobody’s Fool,” is written and performed by Paisley. “It’s inspired by the most heartbreaking scene in the movie,” says Paisley. “Mater realizes that everybody thinks he’s playing the fool and he becomes sort of enlightened and realizes that he’s not playing the fool—he is one. But Mater realizes he is who he is and that was inspiring to me.”
Weezer recorded a cover of the 1984 hit by The Cars, “You Might Think,” which you can hear in this clip:
Giacchino won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for the Disney-Pixar movie “Up.” This marvelously conceived and moving sequence from “Up” probably won him the Oscar:
https://youtu.be/GroDErHIM_0