My Heart Will Go On
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| "My Heart Will Go On" | ||
|---|---|---|
| Image:My Heart Will Go On Single Cover.jpg | ||
| Single by Céline Dion | ||
| From the Titanic Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and the album Let's Talk about Love | ||
| Released | February 3 1998 | |
| Recorded | Spring 1997 Las Vegas, New York | |
| Format | CD single Cassette single | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Length | 4:41 | |
| Label | Epic | |
| Writers | James Horner Will Jennings | |
| Producers | Walter Afanasieff James Horner | |
| Chart positions | #1 (U.S.) #1 (UK) #1 (CAN) #1 (AU) #1 (NZ) #1 (GER) | |
| Céline Dion singles chronology | ||
| "Be the Man" 1997 | "My Heart Will Go On" 1998 | "Immortality" 1998 |
"My Heart Will Go On" is the theme song of the highly popular 1997 film Titanic. Originally released in 1997 on Céline Dion's album Let's Talk About Love, it went to number one in several countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. It stayed at this position for two weeks in each of the aforementioned countries.
The song was written by Will Jennings and James Horner. Although James Cameron, the director of Titanic, did not want a song played over the end credits of the film, Jennings and Horner went ahead and recorded the song with Céline Dion regardless. It is said that Cameron was so taken with Dion's voice that he changed his mind about the song and indeed, the song does play over the end credits.
Dion has admitted that when she first heard the song, she didn't want to record it. It was her manager and husband, René Angélil, who convinced her to record it. Also notable is that the song heard on the radio and in Dion's albums was sung only one time. Even more incredible was that Dion recorded the entire song without the music. Horner, Dion and Sony Music decided to keep the first recording as the official song because "Dion's voice was perfect".
In addition to Dion's Let's Talk About Love and the Titanic soundtrack, it appears on several other albums, including two of Dion's later albums, All the Way... a Decade of Song and A New Day... Live in Las Vegas. It has also appeared on several compilation albums, and won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Song, and the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in addition to the Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
Due to the song's large popularity when it was released, it is considered to be Celine Dion's signature song. The song became so big that many felt that it was one of the most overplayed songs of all time. Today, along with Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You,' it is considered to be the biggest love ballad of the 90's.
After the song had become a huge hit worldwide, many movie studios and record labels tried to duplicate the success of the song. Although many soundtrack singles had become huge hits before 'My Heart Will Go On,' a string of copycats followed afterwards. Aerosmith's 'I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing' (1998's Armageddon) and Faith Hill's 'There You'll Be' (2001's Pearl Harbor) each followed the footsteps of 'My Heart Will Go On', a love ballad for a tragedy movie. Although those two songs became huge hits, they didn't have the same impact that 'My Heart Will Go On' did.
In a 2006 poll for a Channel 4 program "Britain's Favourite Break-up Songs", My Heart Will Go On was voted 10th.
A cover version of this song was later recorded by Neil Diamond for an album of film tracks.