Magnolia (soundtrack)


Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack album to the film of the same name. Largely composed of works by Aimee Mann, enough such that she receives a title billing on the album, it features tracks by Gabrielle, Supertramp and Jon Brion. The album has been received positively by critics.

Description

stated that Magnolia was inspired by Mann's music.
Many of the songs feature prominently within the film, with "Wise Up" even being sung by the cast at one point, but only two of the songs were written expressly for the film, those being "You Do" and "Save Me". "Save Me" would garner Mann an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, losing to Phil Collins's song "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan.
The tracks "Deathly", "Driving Sideways", and "You Do" show up on Aimee Mann's following album, Bachelor No. 2, though the track "Save Me" replaces "Driving Sideways" on EU editions. "Nothing Is Good Enough", here an instrumental, appears in lyrical form on that album.
The beginning of the song "You Could Make a Killing" and the bit that appears after the track "It's Not Safe", both from I'm with Stupid, also appear briefly in the beginning of the film, but the tracks do not appear on this album.
The song "One", written by Harry Nilsson and originally made popular by Three Dog Night, is played during the first five minutes of the movie, and contains several obscure musical references to other Nilsson songs. It opens with a sample of Nilsson saying "Okay, Mr. Mix!" taken from the start of his song "Cuddly Toy". This version of the song also includes lyrics from Nilsson's song "Together" sung in the background.. Furthermore, the opening vocal motif from Nilsson's song "Good Old Desk" is used as a background vocal line. Neil Innes, from The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and The Rutles, and Chris Difford of Squeeze provide backing vocals. This track originally appeared on the tribute album.

Critical reception

In a 2020 look back at the release, Alex McLevy of The A.V. Club praised the film for widening Mann's audience and the unique way that the writing of the film coincided with the musician's songwriting.

Commercial performance

In February 2001, the soundtrack has sold 410,000 units in the United States.

Track listing

All songs performed by Aimee Mann, except where noted.

Charts and certifications

Charts

Certifications