Halloween Week: Sally's Song
It’s Halloween! Who is in love with this holiday? I know I am. Not only is it centred right in the middle of the best season, autumn, it is also a celebration of Wiccan holiday Samhain, and children and adults all get dressed up as their creepiest demons to spook and scare. And the perfect film for all those who enjoy this ghostly celebration is The Nightmare Before Christmas which, to be fair, as been whirring around my DVD player all year round. Anyway, as Henry Sellick has announced it as a Halloween movie, I’m talking about some of the best songs in the film. Over at I’m With Geek, we’re looking at the epitomes This Is Halloween, and here, I’m focusing on Sally’s Song.
Sally, the stitched up ragdoll from The Nightmare Before Christmas, is the greatest Disney princess of all time. Oh, sorry, I forget that she isn’t technically a princess. No, of course, because she is together with Jack Skellington, the King of the Pumpkin Patch, so she is really a Queen. Before the pair got together, however, she was merely his confidant. Locked away in a tower by her creator Dr Finklestein, who wanted her to be his wife, Sally has always admired Jack from far away - particularly this ambition and position in his role, looming over Halloween town. Not only this, but she yearns for freedom and at every possible chance she gets, she escapes her confines to explore the town.
Many know Sally as the voice of reason too because she doesn’t blindly follow Jack. Sensing that his whole “hey why don’t we monsters take over a cheesy, joy-filled holiday?” is probably going to end badly, particularly when Skellington kidnaps Santa Claws (well…Clause…) to assume his role, Sally tries desperately to stop things going awry, despite the crowds in complete obsession with Jack’s plan.
So let’s look at the song, shall we? After Jack romps off to become Father Christmas, Sally walks through the town and the mist with an alley blues band conveying her mood, especially as she has lost hope that her Jack will come back safe. Sally’s Song our heroines juxtaposition to Jack’s Lament (a song where that she overhears and, to herself, explains her similar sentiments.) In her high-pitched squeak of a voice (which actually never gets overbearing,) she soulfully explores her admiration and love for the skeleton man in a sorrow-filled and painful portrayal of unrequited love. Lyrically gorgeous, matching Danny Elfman’s stirring music, O’Hara accurately captures this emotional abandonment of the heart and gifts the film a romantic yet devastating tone to it.
Sadly, however, O’Hara’s version of the song isn’t the best one. Fast forward a few years later and all your emo-tastic bands were offered a chance to sing songs from the film in the album Nightmare: Revisited. With the likes of Fall Out Boy, Marilyn Manson, and Panic! At The Disco all on board, there was only one person who could capture the essence of Sally and the burning pain within the lyrics. That person, of course, was Amy Lee, the lead singer of Evanescence. Somehow making the already sad song more anguished and poetic, Lee’s redolent voice coaxes goose-bumps to sublimely crawl down you. As your eyes well with memories and tears, this version of the song takes the whole meaning of the song and coats it with even more hurt. Simply divine.