Bruce Springsteen Wrote A ‘Harry Potter’ Song, But They Rejected It


You’d imagine that any producer, director, and film would jump on the opportunity to include a Bruce Springsteen song in their production. But the musical icon has revealed that the team behind Harry Potter rejected a track that he’d written for the blockbuster, which was entitled “I’ll Stand By You Always.”

What’s even ruder is that Bruce Springsteen didn’t get a reason why “I’ll Stand By You Always” was rejected by the big-wigs in charge of Harry Potter. Bruce Springsteen made this admission to BBC Radio 2’s Simon Mayo, revealing that the song itself was a “big ballad” and that he’d been inspired to write it because of his son Evan, who is now 26 years old.

When he was asked why the song was turned down, Springsteen remarked, “You’d have to ask them,” before he then said of the song, “It’s very uncharacteristic of something I’d sing myself, but it was something that I thought would have fit lovely [in the films].” But Bruce Springsteen still has some rather big plans for the track, though, as he wants it to be seen in a film at some point in the near future.

“At some point I’d like to get it into a children’s movie of some sort,” Springsteen explained. “It was a pretty lovely song.”

But before you reach the conclusion that “I’ll Stand By You Always” must have been distinctly average, there is a good reason why the Bruce Springsteen song wasn’t used. That’s because no lyrical tracks or pop songs were used in any of the eight Harry Potter films. Instead there was an orchestra and musical score, which was written by John Williams, Alexandre Desplat, Patrick Doyle, and Nicholas Hooper.

Bruce Springsteen has quite a good track record when it comes to composing tracks for films. Back in 1994 he picked up the Academy Award For Best Original Song for his track “Streets Of Philadelphia” for the movie Philadelphia, which was directed by Jonathan Demme and starred Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington.

The Harry Potter franchise managed to do rather well without the input of Bruce Springsteen, though. Over the course of eight films, which started back in 2001 with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and concluded in 2011 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the Harry Potter franchise went on to gross $7.723 billion having cost $1.155 billion, and turned Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe into huge stars.

This is set to carry on in the very near future, too, as David Yates, who previously directed the last four installments to the franchise, starting with 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix, which he then followed up with 2009’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2010’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and concluded with 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, has been placed in charge of directing the spin-off Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

Fantastic Beasts is the adaptation of another J.K. Rowling book, and it will see her make her screenwriting debut, and it stars the Oscar-winning Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander in 1926 New York. Arriving in the Big Apple with a briefcase full of magical creatures, Newt’s beasts are set loose in the city and he has to find them.

Of course, the revelation from Bruce Springsteen immediately leads to hope that the track will actually be used in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. However, the fact that James Newton Howard has been employed to compose the music for the film suggests that there won’t be any room in Fantastic Beasts for the track. We’ll find out if they managed to squeeze it in when Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them is released next month on November 18.

[Featured Image by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images]

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