Tom Hanks made his directing debut in 1996 with That Thing You Do!, a fictional saga of a one-hit-wonder 1960s band punningly called the Wonders. The title song, written by Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, captures the ’60s zeitgeist in a tidy two minutes and 43 seconds.
But Hanks chose it after a wide audition. Nobody’s sure how many songwriters were asked. Schlesinger bested top competition.
That Thing You Do! turns 30 next year, a fine time for Playtone Records to reissue a deluxe-edition soundtrack with the tunes that didn’t make the cut…
Marshall Crenshaw “All I Ever Wanted”
“The music supervisor told me that it was a movie about ‘60s rock and roll,” Crenshaw recalls, “and that they really wanted it to be period correct.” He’d co-written a song with Kirsty MacColl called “All I Ever Wanted,” but he wasn’t sure it fit. (“Kirsty had some lyrics in there about having a hangover,” he chuckles.) So he sent in a new demo. “They said something nice back, like, ‘Thanks, but it’s not exactly right.”
The Posies “Ask Anybody”
Jon Auer recalls getting the invitation while the Posies were touring Europe. They quickly came up with “Ask Anybody.” “We wanted a shot at the prize,” he says, “so we found a way to make it work.” Auer says that the song was good but admits that “it didn’t come close to capturing the spirit of the movie.” The Posies’ “Ask Anybody” has never surfaced.
XTC “My Train is Coming”
Andy Partridge proved he was a master of ’60s evocation with the XTC offshoot Dukes of Stratosphear, and had previously written “My Train is Coming” for Buster, starring Phil Collins (who rejected it). Partridge tried again. His Merseybeat-flavored song, re-recorded, eventually appeared on the Blu-ray reissue of Oranges & Lemons.
Robyn Hitchcock “That Thing You Do”
Jonathan Demme alerted Robyn, whom he’d done a documentary on, to the opportunity. Hitchcock doesn’t recall seeing the script, but understood the brief: “Write a sort of exuberant, 1964-type pop song.” He did. Nowadays, Hitchcock isn’t sure where his copy of the demo is. “It was just snappy and short,” he says, “a bit like ‘To Be Alone with You’ by Bob Dylan.” He doesn’t consider it a “lost masterpiece or anything,” but adds, “I enjoyed doing it.”
The Verve Pipe “That Thing You Do”
“They wanted a ’60s sounding thing, which is right up my alley.” says Brian Vander Ark. The song came easily, but Vander Ark thinks he might’ve been one of the last songwriters invited. “Maybe they hadn’t found ‘the one’ yet,” he says, “and maybe I was on that C-list.”
Dwight Twilley “That Thing You Do”
Dwight Twilley, who died in 2023, hit #16 on the charts twice, with “I’m on Fire” (1975) and “Girls” (1984). Dwight’s widow Jan recalls his hearing about the theme from Paramount’s Senior VP of Music. “But he failed to mention ‘based on a Beatles-y sound.’” Twilley wrote and delivered his own “That Thing You Do,” but its moody, minor-key jangle didn’t fit the film’s vibe.
Velvet Crush “The Thing That You Do”
Paul Chastain recalls learning of a “not-quite-open publishing call” during sessions with Mitch Easter for Heavy Changes. “We had the title and knew it was about a band in the ’60s,” he says, “but we didn’t have much time to do it. Everything was done in a take or two.” Mitch had a Paul Revere & the Raiders best-of, and its spirit influenced the Crush’s attempt — a near-ringer for Revere’s “Just like Me.” “Once I saw the movie,” says Paul, “I was like, ‘Well, we really missed the mark on that one!’”
