On and on and on and on and on

So yesterday I was at work and we were listening to Lite 104 point something or another (the "feel good at work station!" Whatever.) We have this incredibly cheap Targhetto CD player/radio at work and we can only periodically pick up stations, so we usually just take what we can get. Anyway, we were kind of mocking the songs that were being played (even though it seemed like I had an anecdote for just about every single song.) Suddenly, one of my co-workers exclaimed.

"Oh no! It's the Titanic!"

Yep, it was Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." I can't say that I have heard this song (in it's original incarnation) more than a handful of times since 1998 when you literally could not escape the song. I remember Titanic fever so well. I remember my sister working at the Carroll theater during Titanic's release and it stayed there for some ungodly long time and some lady asked my sister when they were going to stop showing Titanic. Her response? When it stops selling out every night.

A friend of mine once shared with me that he feels that Titanic is unfairly maligned these days, suffering from the inevitable backlash that accompanies uber successful films. I do agree with this statement. I think some of that is people wishing that they hadn't gotten so caught up in it, almost as if they are now embarrassed by what they felt. But there is no denying it is a powerful film. I remember when Heidi and I saw it for the first time, on a cold winter's night in Cedar Rapids. We were very affected by it. The scene that always gets me is when the Titanic has sunk and the camera pans back, revealing all the people just flailing around in the ocean. And then, several scenes later, nearly all of them are dead.

Yes, it is a bit overacted and the dialogue is very corny at times (although I don't think it even approaches the awfulness of the Star Wars prequels as far as dialogue goes.) But I think it was really the last movie that got EVERYONE into the movie theater. And it was certainly the last movie that I can think of that had legs, that had a slow(ish) build rather than completely blowing its wad on the opening weekend and then sinking like a stone after that.

But back to Celine. I am not ashamed to say that I kind of like the song. It's not my favorite song in the world or anything, but I can appreciate it because it is dramatic and bombastic and very diva-ish and yes, it reminds me of that time. However, I can see why people would hate it. Where the original version of the song really lost me was when they started playing a version of the song on the radio with snippets of dialogue from the movie dubbed into it.

The song, however, is completely redeemed by its dance remix. I am always bit dubious of dance remixes of ballads. Too often, a generic drum beat is thrown behind the original mix and nothing memorable happens. Not so with "My Heart Will Go On." I REALLY like this version of the song, and truly, it's about the only one that gets any play with me these days. But don't take my word for it - try for yourself (and enjoy the movie in 4:35 as well.)



OK, not the brilliance that was the Miami Mix of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" (for which Madonna resang the vocals) but still, not bad.

So yeah, I kind of enjoyed hearing "My Heart Will Go On" again yesterday. But oddly enough, I saved these stories for the blog.