Keane - Love Actually

Today’s featured band is among the most successful bands we’ve ever mentioned on glamglare but there’s a very good reason to do so because the song “Love Actually” is, actually, really good, and the story around it is just so endearing. Yes, the track was indeed written for the 2003 Christmas romantic comedy Love Actually, but never professionally recorded. Fast forward twenty years, Keane now recorded and produced the track, and it finally can hit the airwaves.

Tim Rice-Oxley (keys, backing vocals, songwriting) does a mental time travel and muses about writing and (not) releasing the song. He says:

“In 2002 we were an unsigned band; and our friend and manager Adam was working for the producer of Love Actually. While they were making the film, Adam suggested we should quickly write a song and he’d see if he could get it into Richard Curtis’ hands…and maybe we could sneak onto the soundtrack and get our big break! Needless to say it didn’t turn out that way, but Richard always very graciously said he loved the song and wished he’d put it in the film. We all loved the song too, but having called it ‘Love Actually’, it was very hard to do anything with it! In fact, for 20 years whenever I’ve played a new demo to my mum, her response has usually been “Hmm…when are you going to record ‘Love Actually’?” Well, the film Love Actually is 20 years old now, which at last gives us a perfect reason to record our song properly.”

I couldn’t agree more. More to celebrate and to enjoy! Of course, the movie’s writer and director, Richard Curtis, also remembers how this went down back then, and he says:

“Everyone makes mistakes – even if they’re understandable ones. When I first listened to ‘Love Actually’ by this totally unknown combo called Keane, I thought it was beautiful. I tried really hard to put it in the film – but in the end it was a little melancholy and, dare I say, a bit DEEP for the film I’d made. Of course, I realized what a dreadful mistake that had been when six months later ‘Hopes and Fears’ was Number 1 in the charts. It is SO wonderful that the song is now being released for everyone to hear. I’ve listened to it a lot over the years and love it even more now than I did then. And this time, myself and my son Spike have made a little edit of the whole film to go with the song. I think I actually prefer that three minute version of ‘Love Actually’ to the long, chaotic film that’s been doing the rounds now for 20 years.”

Too cute, dear Mr. Curtis! Your long, chaotic film is just right as it is, with some flaws that weren’t apparent twenty years ago but are now a bit more noticeable. But… and this is a huge, really huge, ‘but’ I wholeheartedly LOVE this movie, and it became a tradition to watch it at least once each season, with some seasons that saw me watching it multiple times.

Listen to “Love Actually,” our Song Pick of the Day, and watch the movie (again) this holiday season. To get you even further into the mood, check out the lyric video and let’s swoon collectively, shall we?

Connect with Keane and add “Love Actually” to your playlist as we add it to our #glamglarepick playlist on Spotify and YouTube:

Photo credit: Alex Lake