Whenever a conversation about the great John Williams scores picks up, it doesn’t take too long for Home Alone to be mentioned. I mean, compositions like “Somewhere in My Memory” and “Star of Bethlehem” helped turn Chris Columbus’ 1990 holiday film into not only one of the best ‘90s movies, but also an all-time great Christmas classic. However, did you know that the Academy Award-winning composer and frequent Steven Spielberg collaborator wasn’t initially involved with the picture? I certainly didn’t.
Well, it turns out that an entirely different yet equally prolific composer was all set to score Home Alone, only to be forced to drop out late in the game because of an animated Disney movie. Here’s how an oft-overlooked Disney Renaissance era movie led to one of the best movie soundtracks of all time.
Bruce Broughton Had To Drop Out Because Of The Rescuers Down Under
Throughout the production of Home Alone, the plan was for Bruce Broughton to score the film. The skilled composer, who was nominated for an Oscar a few years earlier for his work on Silverado, was working on the music side of things until something came up with another project he was working on, Disney’s underrated film The Rescuers Down Under. As director Chris Columbus would later tell EW in 2015, he was getting close to finishing the movie when he received the fateful phone call:
But as we were getting closer to finishing the film we got a call from Bruce saying that he was under a deadline to finish his score for The Rescuers Down Under, and he couldn’t do Home Alone. So we were left without a composer.
Racing to find a way to fix the situation, Columbus told EW that he got in contact with Steven Spielberg to set up a call with John Williams and see if he’d be interested.
I had known Steven Spielberg for years … Steven got me in touch with John Williams’ agent, and John agreed to screen the film and he fell in love with it. His score took the movie to a different level.
The rest is history, and Williams came on board to create one of the most beloved scores of all time. It's one that elevated the movie to new heights with its sentimentality and netted the composer two more Oscar nominations before it was all said and done.
John Williams Saw Home Alone As An Opportunity To Write Original Christmas Carols
Shortly after the release of Home Alone, John Williams was featured in an Entertainment Tonight segment where he opened up about scoring the movie. In addition to playing melodies from the massively popular film, Williams said the movie gave him an opportunity he’d always wanted:
Something I've always wanted to do in my life was to write some Christmas music. You can imagine what a challenge that is, because there’s over 400, 500 years of great church music and great Christmas music. But I've never had that opportunity in almost 30 years of writing, so that was one thing that appealed to me.
Williams’ wish came true and he created some of the most enchanting and emotionally stirring Christmas music of all time. All these years later, some of us can’t go a holiday season without not only watching Home Alone, but also listening to the soundtrack on repeat.
If you want to go back and revisit Home Alone, it, along with its 1992 sequel, Lost in New York, are streaming with a Disney+ subscription.
