The film's score was written by Andrew Wyatt; Coppola sent him some stills and invited him to the film's shoot in Las Vegas in order to persuade him to join the project.[1] The day after his performance of "I'm Just Ken", from the film Barbie (2023), at the 96th Academy Awards, Wyatt joined the film's shoot and watched the final cut, where he suggested to Coppola to incorporate an original song instead of a Dean Martin song that was previously present at the end of the film.[1] He then reached out to Swedish musician Lykke Li, as he felt he needed a female perspective to go with the film's themes; the two had known each other for decades and founded Ingrid together in 2012.[1]
The film's closing song, "Beautiful That Way", was performed by Miley Cyrus, and written by Wyatt, Li, and Cyrus.[2] Wyatt was working on Cyrus's upcoming studio album, and felt that her career from child star to adult musician would provide a good perspective while writing the song.[3] The song was a last-minute addition to the film which was recorded in August 2024; Jamie Lee Curtis persuaded Cyrus to get involved at the 2024 ceremony when they were both inducted as Disney Legends and Cyrus got in touch with Wyatt the following day.[1] Wyatt aimed for "Beautiful That Way" to sound like a Patsy Cline song.[3]
Composing the score was an "exhaustive" process, according to Wyatt, as he had to juggle both working on the song and the score in time for the film's 2024 Toronto International Film Festival premiere.[1] Elements of the song were also incorporated into the film's score, which was derived from the visual imagery and the score in particular was "my response to the images that I was seeing, which were kind of these beautiful but somehow sad images."[4] The score was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios, with a 60-piece orchestra conducted by David Chase, was recorded at Manhattan Center.[4]
Release
The ballad "Beautiful That Way" was released as a single on December 9, 2024,[5][6] with an accompanying music video featured the performance of Miley Cyrus.[7][8] The score was released digitally on December 20, 2024, through Milan Records.[9]
Reception
Jen Yamato of The Washington Post wrote "Andrew Wyatt's expressive, nostalgic score of lush strings, piano and harps weaves a mythical soundscape."[10] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian described it as a "soaring, often rather lovely score".[11] Coleman Spilde of Salon.com wrote Wyatt's score "floats in and out of the film like a dream".[12] called it as a "glittering score".[13]
