Landau: James Horner went out - without us knowing it - and wrote the song. Everybody was calling the movie “Cameron’s Folly.” No one had even come close to paying that. We knew we were buying the rights to a score album only. Glen Brunman ( then-executive vp, Sony Music Soundtrax): We made the deal for the album in December 1996. But he was skeptical that a pop song would work at the end of this very dramatic, historical drama. Jon Landau ( executive producer, Titanic): It had nothing to do with the marketing. And because the studio was on the hook for this picture, for what they’d spent they were looking for every marketing opportunity that they could get.

Tommy Mottola ( then-head of Sony Music Entertainment): Cameron was getting pressure from the studio to try and have something that would be an additional powerful marketing tool. His favorite bands were Ministry and Metallica. Jim didn’t want to end the film with a pop song. Randy Gerston ( music supervisor, Titanic): We had done a record deal with Sony to do the soundtrack - just the Horner score - and I think the label imagined that they would get an end-title song into the film. The movie was meant to come out July 3 in April, it was still almost five hours long. Titanic was the film that was going to bring down two studios, Fox and Paramount. Simon Franglen ( co-producer, “My Heart Will Go On” ): The buzz was terrible. Billboard spoke with her - as well as the song’s producers, Titanic team members and actor Billy Zane - about tales of tension at the Grammy Awards, Kate Winslet’s real feelings about the song and even menstrual cramps in the studio. In honor of the song’s 20th anniversary, Dion, 49, will perform “My Heart Will Go On” at the Billboard Music Awards. In 2016, according to Nielsen Music, “My Heart Will Go On” garnered 60 million on-demand audio and video streams, making it Dion’s most streamed song of the year, and the Titanic soundtrack is one of only seven soundtracks to be certified diamond by the RIAA. After Titanic’s release, it was memorably spoofed on Saturday Night Live (on Ana Gasteyer’s “The Céline Dion Show”) and South Park, and it continues to inspire countless memes (recently, “Titanic Hoops,” which sets basketball clips to the song’s climax). Twenty years later, the anthem’s global influence shows no sign of abating. Horner with his Oscars for best original song and best original dramatic score.

Album celine dion titanic