He remembers the phone lines blowing up with moviegoers requesting the song. When the song came out in 1997, Ivey was the program director at Kiss 108 in Boston, a Top 40 station. “It was one of those records that just wouldn’t die,” said John Ivey, president of contemporary hits radio programming strategy for iHeartMedia. The ballad, written by Will Jennings and James Horner, also won record of the year and song of the year at the 1999 Grammy Awards, in addition to best original song at the Oscars. With all the mockery (even Kate Winslet has said that hearing the song makes her feel like throwing up), it's easy to overlook the iconic track's unbelievably massive success.įirst, the numbers: The single sold 1.7 million copies on its own and propelled Dion’s “Let’s Talk About Love” and the “Titanic: Music From the Motion Picture” soundtrack to each sell tens of millions of albums worldwide. The ubiquitous power ballad, better known as the "Titanic" theme song, has become a bit of a pop culture punchline since the record-shattering film's release 20 years ago. "Įven though some people (ahem) will happily admit to the second choice, it's understandable that others can't bear to hear the Céline Dion hit even one more time. (b) Crank up the volume and grab a fake microphone, because it's your time to shine: "Near. (a) Scramble to change the station, turn down the volume or throw yourself out of the vehicle, because you would rather be a passenger on a doomed cruise ship than hear that gentle flute again. The opening notes of “My Heart Will Go On” start to play. You’re in the car, listening to the radio. Just wait ’till you see what it had to navigate through before safely harboring at the port of cinematic history.It’s the year 2017. Just as with the legendary ship, the movie was bigger than anything that came before it, captained by an uncompromising director who pushed full steam ahead into some treacherous waters.
It’s amazing how many calamities the production survived, keeping Cameron’s unforgettable vision intact. It’s hard to believe now that everything from Leonardo DiCaprio’s casting to Celine Dion’s award-winning song almost didn’t happen, but this was a voyage almost as dangerous in many ways as the real Titanic’s Atlantic crossing. The production of the deeply ambitious big-budget spectacle was fraught with peril - and we aren’t talking about icebergs in the fog!īallooning expenses, dangerous scenes, confounding decisions, and a whole lot of risk-taking could have sent the movie straight to the bottom of the cinematic seas. Sink or swim? While history looks back on James Cameron’s towering epic film " Titanic" as one of the greatest box office hits of all time, there were many, many times where its success was less than certain.
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