HIT DETAILS
Artist Name: LINDA RONSTADT AND JAMES INGRAM
Top Position (Australia): 30
Song Author: James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
Year Recorded: 1987
Record Label: MCA
Label Number: 7-52973
SONG PROFILE
“Somewhere Out There”
Single by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram
from the album An American Tail
“Somewhere Out There” is a song written by James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
It appears in the 1986 animated film An American Tail.
The composers “felt no pressure to come up with a radio-friendly hit” and were surprised when Spielberg felt “Somewhere Out There” had Top 40 hit potential and recruited Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram to record the song to play under the film’s closing credits.
In the main body of the film, “Somewhere Out There” was performed by Phillip Glasser and Betsy Cathcart in the characters of the anthropomorphic mice Fievel and Tanya Mousekewitz.
Produced by Ronstadt’s regular producer Peter Asher, the single release of the Ronstadt/Ingram track debuted at #31 on the Adult Contemporary chart in Billboard dated 15 November 1986 crossing over to the Billboard Hot 100 dated 20 December 1986 with a #83 debut.
In February 1987 “Somewhere Out There” returned Ronstadt to the Top 40 after a four year absence to eventually peak at #2 that March.
One of the last commercially released singles to be certified Gold for US sales of one million units, “Somewhere Out There” was also a UK hit at #8 marking Ronstadt’s first appearance in the UK Top 20.
In the 1991 sequel to An American Tail: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West a snippet of “Somewhere Out There” is sung by Cathy Cavadini in the character of Tanya Mousekewitz.
At the Grammy Awards of 1988, the song won two awards, one for Song of the Year and the other for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television.