I Thought I Lost You (song)
Encyclopedia
"I Thought I Lost You" is a pop
song performed by both American singer-songwriter and actress Miley Cyrus
and actor John Travolta
. The song was co-written by Cyrus with producer
Jeffrey Steele
. It was released to Radio Disney
as promotion for the 2008 animated film Bolt and its soundtrack; in the film, Cyrus portrays the voice of Penny and Travolta the voice of Bolt. "I Thought I Lost You" was made after filmmakers requested Cyrus to write a song for the film. The song is a teen pop
number whose lyrics speak of getting lost and getting found.
"I Thought I Lost You" was nominated for Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Song and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
, but lost both to Bruce Springsteen
's "The Wrestler
" from The Wrestler (2008). The song's accompanying music video has Cyrus and Travolta performing the song in a recording studio and features clips from Bolt. "I Thought I Lost You" was promoted by several live performances by Cyrus.
, who stars as Bolt. She co-wrote the song with the aid of Jeffrey Steele
, who also produced the track, in a short period of time as they had a due date. The film's settings vary in cities throughout the United States, which Cyrus thought she could capture in the song. "Not just make it something that sounds from Hollywood and really produced, but we could add a little country
twang to it," she said. Cyrus said the writing process was easy. Before the song's completion, Travolta agreed to sing it, believing "Well, it will be a cute song, whatever it is." After listening to the song, he was surprised at Cyrus' songwriting abilities. "She's really gifted at writing, and she really wanted to write something good for me as the character Bolt, so she went out of her way with her writing partner to come up with something good, and I really think they pulled it off", Travolta told MTV News
.
John Lasseter
, executive producer of Bolt, decided to make "I Thought I Lost You" the theme
for Bolt, since it lyrically summarized the film's plot. He said, "[The song] so sums up the theme of this film. You know, a dog and its owner and they both were separated, but they love each other so much — there's such an emotional payoff when these characters get reunited, and I think that's what this song's about." Lasseter thought that solely the song worked, but it worked better for the film. "I Thought I Lost You" is one of two songs on the Bolt soundtrack and was released to Radio Disney
to promote Bolt and its accompanying soundtrack.
song that incorporates pop rock
elements and lasts three minutes and thirty-six seconds. Its instrumentation
includes electric guitar
and piano
. The song is set in common time
at a moderate rock tempo
of 103 beats per minute. The song is sung in the key of E♭ major and Cyrus' vocals span two octaves, from G3 to A♭5. "I Thought I Lost You" follows the chord progression
of E♭—A♭sus2. The song's lyrics speak of "getting lost and getting found, with an overarching theme of loyalty."
, but lost both to Bruce Springsteen
's "The Wrestler
" from The Wrestler (2008). The song was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
at the 66th Golden Globe Awards
, but also lost to "The Wrestler". An uncredited reviewer from The Los Angeles Times thought the song could have been nominated for and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song
at 81st Academy Awards
. However, the reviewer stated that the probability of the event was shattered by "a serious obstacle [solely being used in Bolts ending credits] and lots of Disney
competition."
for "I Thought I Lost You" premiered on November 3, 2008 on Disney Channel
. The video commences with a clip from Bolt in which one of the film's characters, Rhino, shouts "Let it begin!" Then several clips from the film play rapidly until Cyrus and Travolta are shown performing in a recording studio
. Throughout the rest of the video, scenes alternate between Cyrus and Travolta performing to clips from Bolt. It ends with Rhino performing a brief dance move.
Cyrus first performed "I Thought I Lost You" live on November 12, 2008 at an outdoor concert televised by Good Morning America
. She also performed the track at the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
.
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
song performed by both American singer-songwriter and actress Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus
Miley Ray Cyrus is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana....
and actor John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
. The song was co-written by Cyrus with producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Jeffrey Steele
Jeffrey Steele
Jeffrey LeVasseur is an American country music singer and songwriter, more commonly known by the name Jeffrey Steele...
. It was released to Radio Disney
Radio Disney
Radio Disney is a radio network based in Burbank, California and headquartered out of the Disney Channel headquarters on West Alameda Ave., from where it has been based since November 2008. Prior to that, the network was based in Dallas, Texas...
as promotion for the 2008 animated film Bolt and its soundtrack; in the film, Cyrus portrays the voice of Penny and Travolta the voice of Bolt. "I Thought I Lost You" was made after filmmakers requested Cyrus to write a song for the film. The song is a teen pop
Teen pop
Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards teenagers. Teen pop copies genres and styles such as pop, dance, R&B, hip hop, country and rock....
number whose lyrics speak of getting lost and getting found.
"I Thought I Lost You" was nominated for Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Song and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1960s:...
, but lost both to Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
's "The Wrestler
The Wrestler (song)
"The Wrestler" is the title song from the 2008 film, The Wrestler. The track was written and performed by Bruce Springsteen.The origins of the song are based in a lost and resumed friendship between Springsteen and Wrestler lead actor Mickey Rourke; Rourke told Springsteen about his upcoming film...
" from The Wrestler (2008). The song's accompanying music video has Cyrus and Travolta performing the song in a recording studio and features clips from Bolt. "I Thought I Lost You" was promoted by several live performances by Cyrus.
Background
Cyrus became involved with Bolt once she was cast as Penny, Bolt's owner. Filmmakers asked Cyrus to write a song for herself and John TravoltaJohn Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
, who stars as Bolt. She co-wrote the song with the aid of Jeffrey Steele
Jeffrey Steele
Jeffrey LeVasseur is an American country music singer and songwriter, more commonly known by the name Jeffrey Steele...
, who also produced the track, in a short period of time as they had a due date. The film's settings vary in cities throughout the United States, which Cyrus thought she could capture in the song. "Not just make it something that sounds from Hollywood and really produced, but we could add a little country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
twang to it," she said. Cyrus said the writing process was easy. Before the song's completion, Travolta agreed to sing it, believing "Well, it will be a cute song, whatever it is." After listening to the song, he was surprised at Cyrus' songwriting abilities. "She's really gifted at writing, and she really wanted to write something good for me as the character Bolt, so she went out of her way with her writing partner to come up with something good, and I really think they pulled it off", Travolta told MTV News
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...
.
John Lasseter
John Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter is an American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering....
, executive producer of Bolt, decided to make "I Thought I Lost You" the theme
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
for Bolt, since it lyrically summarized the film's plot. He said, "[The song] so sums up the theme of this film. You know, a dog and its owner and they both were separated, but they love each other so much — there's such an emotional payoff when these characters get reunited, and I think that's what this song's about." Lasseter thought that solely the song worked, but it worked better for the film. "I Thought I Lost You" is one of two songs on the Bolt soundtrack and was released to Radio Disney
Radio Disney
Radio Disney is a radio network based in Burbank, California and headquartered out of the Disney Channel headquarters on West Alameda Ave., from where it has been based since November 2008. Prior to that, the network was based in Dallas, Texas...
to promote Bolt and its accompanying soundtrack.
Composition
"I Thought I Lost You" is a teen popTeen pop
Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards teenagers. Teen pop copies genres and styles such as pop, dance, R&B, hip hop, country and rock....
song that incorporates pop rock
Pop rock
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...
elements and lasts three minutes and thirty-six seconds. Its instrumentation
Instrumentation (music)
In music, instrumentation refers to the particular combination of musical instruments employed in a composition, and to the properties of those instruments individually...
includes electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. The song is set in common time
Common Time
"Common Time" is a science fiction short story written by James Blish. It first appeared in the August 1953 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and has been reprinted several times: in the 1959 short-story collection Galactic Cluster; in The Testament of Andros ; in The Penguin Science Fiction...
at a moderate rock tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
of 103 beats per minute. The song is sung in the key of E♭ major and Cyrus' vocals span two octaves, from G3 to A♭5. "I Thought I Lost You" follows the chord progression
Chord progression
A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
of E♭—A♭sus2. The song's lyrics speak of "getting lost and getting found, with an overarching theme of loyalty."
Critical reception
The song received mixed reception from contemporary critics. William Ruhlmann of Allmusic wrote, "The album begins with a pop/rock song, 'I Thought I Lost You,' which oddly sounds like a love duet between John Travolta, a man in his mid-fifties, and the teenage TV and pop star Miley Cyrus, until it is remembered that Travolta voices the movie's title character, a dog." "I Thought I Lost You" was nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Song at the 14th Broadcast Film Critics Association AwardBroadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2008
The 14th Critics' Choice Awards were presented on Thursday, January 8, 2009 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to honor the finest achievements in 2008 filmmaking.Nominees were announced on December 9, 2008.-Best Film:Slumdog Millionaire...
, but lost both to Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
's "The Wrestler
The Wrestler (song)
"The Wrestler" is the title song from the 2008 film, The Wrestler. The track was written and performed by Bruce Springsteen.The origins of the song are based in a lost and resumed friendship between Springsteen and Wrestler lead actor Mickey Rourke; Rourke told Springsteen about his upcoming film...
" from The Wrestler (2008). The song was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1960s:...
at the 66th Golden Globe Awards
66th Golden Globe Awards
The 66th Golden Globe Awards Ceremony was broadcast on January 11, 2009, from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, United States on the NBC TV network...
, but also lost to "The Wrestler". An uncredited reviewer from The Los Angeles Times thought the song could have been nominated for and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song
Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
at 81st Academy Awards
81st Academy Awards
The 81st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2008 and took place February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST...
. However, the reviewer stated that the probability of the event was shattered by "a serious obstacle [solely being used in Bolts ending credits] and lots of Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
competition."
Music video and live performances
The music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "I Thought I Lost You" premiered on November 3, 2008 on Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
. The video commences with a clip from Bolt in which one of the film's characters, Rhino, shouts "Let it begin!" Then several clips from the film play rapidly until Cyrus and Travolta are shown performing in a recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
. Throughout the rest of the video, scenes alternate between Cyrus and Travolta performing to clips from Bolt. It ends with Rhino performing a brief dance move.
Cyrus first performed "I Thought I Lost You" live on November 12, 2008 at an outdoor concert televised by Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
. She also performed the track at the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...
.
External links
- "I Thought I Lost You" music video on MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....