"That Thing You Do" -- what happened to the rejected songs?

So, the story goes that a bunch of bands were asked to submit "the hit song" for that movie and that the song written by Adam Schlesinger from Fountains of Wayne was the big winner.

But have the other songs submitted to the movie producers ever seen the light of day? If so, does anybody have any idea what they were?

(This came up because I was listening to an old Velvet Crush album -- Single Odessey -- and there's a song called "The Thing That You Do" -- which is pretty much a pastiche of "Just Like Me" and other songs by the Raiders...)

 

Dwight Twilley released his contribution on his Greatest Hits disc XI awhile back. He played it the one time I saw him live too. Good little tune.

 

Interesting. Unfortunately, I don't have anything to add other than to bump for some possible info. I didn't know this was how the song in the film came to be. Seems like it would make for a really interesting compilation!

 

It WOULD be cool to hear the songs rejected in ONE Cd. I saw a band called "That Thing You Do" back a couple years after the movie was out. They played all the movie tunes at an outside event. Never heard of them before or since. Anyway, the music from the movie is just spot on for the era. A TREMENDOUS movie!

 

Isn't another runner-up a bonus in the DVD of the film?

 

A bit more on the song: http://www.filmbuffonline.com/Features/ThatTuneYouDo.htm

 

"I am Spartacus!"

 

My stepdaughter to this day will still sometimes call me "Spartacus" as an affectionate nickname. It came from our mutual love of this movie.

 

I had seen this movie years ago once and really enjoyed it. I just bought the dvd and enjoyed it all over again. Unfortunately the version I bought (2 dvds) doesn't have the commentary on it.

 

Apparently with a lot of help from Mike Viola.

 

Great movie. They did a great job creating the artists and songs. You'd swear they were real.

 

I heard "When You Hold My Hand (You Hold My Heart)" by the Chantrellines on the Underground Garage XM channel a few days ago.

 

The soundtrack has a song called "I Need You (That Thing You Do)" that was never played by the Wonders in the movie but I do believe it was played over the ending credits. I always thought that one was the runner-up.

 

The Knack did an interesting version of the song That Thing You Do, which can be found on the Rhino Very Best Of CD. It was probably recorded after the fact, I'm not sure.

 

On the CD that song is credited to "The Heardsmen" -- you know, heard, like one of the six senses -- and A.M. White's notes in the booklet say this was a band formed by James Mattingly II after The Wonders, consisting of session musicians (IIRC).

Hadn't occurred to me that "Feelin' Alright" would have been a rejected song for the movie. The director's cut DVD has a music video with that song, but other than listing the title in the extras, it doesn't give any info on it.

 

Heh, sounds like "Tomorrow Never Dies" - they essentially had an inter-industry competition for the theme song, and many of the losing bands ended up with b-sides called "Tomorrow Never Dies" after the movie came out.

 

Andy Partridge also submitted a previously-written number, "My Train Is Coming", for the film:

“So good they rejected it twice. Originally written for the Great Train Robbery film Buster, hence the railway imagery. Phil didn't want it, so years later when I was asked did I have an early '60s ish type song for the film That Thing You Do? I could supply them with this to throw back in my face. Rejection makes me stronger, rejection makes me stronger.”