Welcome to the song of the day, where we feature a single track, whether its brand new or older than us, overlooked or overplayed, our favorite or no one’s favorite; as long as its interesting, it can be the song of the day.
The story goes that Jonathon Demme, coming off directing Silence of the Lambs, asked Neil Young to write a song for his new movie about a man dying of AIDS. He wrote this song, called “Philadelphia” but was still looking for something more upbeat and rocking for the opening credits, so he turned to Bruce Springsteen, who also wrote a fairly dark and melancholic song. Demme ended up using Springsteen’s for the opening credits and Young’s for the end credits. Both songs were nominated, and on this day in 1994, Bruce won his first Oscar for “Best Original Song.”
So today’s song is the often overlooked, heartbreaking, “Philadelphia” by Neil Young.
Header image courtesy of Variety.com.