"Somewhere Out There" is a song written by James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, which originally appeared in the 1986 animated film An American Tail.
The single was performed by singers Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram.
Background
Steven Spielberg, the producer of An American Tail, invited songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil to collaborate with James Horner on four songs for the film's soundtrack, to be completed in a four week timeframe. 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 world renowned recording artists, Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram, to record a pop version of the song for 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 January 1987 "Somewhere Out There" returned Ronstadt to the Top 40 after a four-year absence to eventually peak at #2 that March. The song was kept from the top spot by "Jacob's Ladder" by Huey Lewis and the News. One of the last commercially released 45 RPM singles to be certified Gold for United States sales of over one million copies, "Somewhere Out There" was also a major UK hit (peaking at #8), marking Ronstadt's first of three appearances in the UK Top 10.
Music video
The music video for the song was directed, produced and edited by Jeffrey Abelson. It was filmed in New York City and features Ronstadt and Ingram, in two separate rooms, sitting at their desks, drawing and coloring scenes from the movie. They both look out the windows, in the same manner as Fievel and Tanya in the film. Clips from the movie appear throughout the video.
Theme
The lyrics of "Somewhere Out There" convey the love felt by two people separated by vast distances, but cheered by the belief that their love will eventually reunite them to be with each other once again. In the original theatrical production, the fictional characters singing "Somewhere Out There", Fievel and Tanya Mousekewitz, are brother and sister, and the love they share is described as general. However, in the more popular single version of the song, the love is described as more romantic.
Awards
At the 30th Grammy Awards, 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. It also earned nominations for Best Original Song at the 44th Golden Globe Awards and the 59th Academy Awards, but lost both to Take My Breath Away from Top Gun. At the Academy Awards ceremony, Natalie Cole performed the song live with James Ingram.
Covers
In the spring of 1987, singer Liza Minnelli performed, in the words of music critic Stephen Holden of The New York Times, "a stunning rendition" of the song at Carnegie Hall for her three-week concert engagement at the historic music venue. The concert was recorded by Telarc Records and released in late 1987.
In the start of the 1991 sequel to An American Tail: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West a snippet of "Somewhere Out There" is sung by Cathy Cavadini as the character Tanya Mousekewitz, who originally sang it as a duet with her younger brother Fievel in more of a platonic sense, her older version now sings it as a solo focused on someone she has yet to meet.
The Designing Women episode entitled "The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century" - broadcast 1 January 1990 - featured a version of "Somewhere Out There" sung by session singers; the episode's guest star Dolly Parton performed two lines of the song.
"Somewhere Out There" was performed by cast members Danny Pudi and Donald Glover in the NBC comedy Community during the episode "Environmental Science".
"Somewhere Out There" had also been recorded by David Essex (A Night at the Movies/ 1997), Paige O'Hara (Dream With Me/ 1998), and by Kenny Loggins (Return to Pooh Corner/1994) in his Neverland Medley with Patti Austin.
Barry Mann himself covered the song in his album “Soul & Inspirationâ€, released September 21, 1999 by Atlantic Record Corp.
On 16 September 2011, talk show hosts and comedians Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon sang a rendition of the song to each other as a climax to their multi-episode arc of being "best friends for life" for six months.
In December 2012, former Scrubs stars and real life best friends Zach Braff and Donald Faison sang a rendition of the song for their fans. It is available for listening on Braff's Soundcloud account here.