NORAH JONES RECORDING SESSIONS HISTORY: August 2006

The Coop, New York, NY

Band members: Norah Jones (piano, vocals)

Set:

• [X] The Story

Best available sources:

Notes: When approached by Wong Kar-Wai to participate in My Blueberry Nights, Norah Jones presumed the director wanted her to contribute music to his film, but was surprised to find out that he wanted her to play the lead role in the movie.  Jones eventually agreed to Kar-Wai’s offer.

The presumption is that Norah recorded the song in this first week of August 2006, when filming ended in New York. Describing the songwriting process, Jones said Wong asked her if she had “any songs that would go with the soundtrack, and actually there was this song I wrote one morning at 6 a.m. after we had finished shooting in New York City, and I came home and I wasn’t tired yet. I went into my piano room which faces east and I watched the sun come up. It was so beautiful. I wrote that song that morning, very quickly, it just kind of came out. And then when he asked if I had any songs to contribute, that song made sense because it definitely was influenced by my experience in the film.”  Lyrics to the song include the words “I don’t know how to begin/I don’t know how it will end.” [2]

As late as May 2007, Kar-Wai and Jones had agreed that Jones would not contribute to the soundtrack of Blueberry so that viewers would take Jones seriously as an actress. [3] However, in October 2007 the tracklisting for the film’s soundtrack was leaked, which was shown to open up with “The Story.” [1]

References:

1.      Exclusive: Cat Power, Norah Jones & Ry Cooder Warm 'My Blueberry Nights' Soundtrack

2.      Blue Note Records To Release Soundtrack To Wong Kar Wai's New Film My Blueberry Nights

3.      Cannes Press Conference

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