“Somewhere Out There” by Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram

“Somewhere Out There” finds Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram singing about a far-off place where all their desires come true. In the first verse for instance, the singer talks about someone who is at this unknown place thinking about her and loving her, while the second verse also talks about someone at the far away location praying for them to meet.

In the pre-chorus and chorus however, James and Linda duet as though they are the characters in the song’s story who actually separated from distance. It is possible they use this description because the song’s characters are separated by a great physical distance yet they believe that they are still in love and will soon meet. They express their appreciation of the fact that even though they are not physically close, they are at least alive and under the same sky. The song ends with the chorus which suggests that if they can keep loving each other despite the long distance, they’ll remain together and achieve their dreams.

Facts about “Somewhere Out There”

Somewhere Out There was released in 1986. It was later included in Ronstadt’s 2002 compilation album titled The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt.

Songwriter Barry Mann wrote this 1980s classic with James Horner and Cynthia Weil.

It was specifically written for Steven Spielberg’s 1986 animated film, An American Tail. 

Producer Peter Asher revealed that both James and Linda never met at the studio during the same time. According to him, this posed a challenge during the song’s recording process.

The initial title of the song was The Mouse In the Moon. Cynthia Weil suggested a change in title when she and Mann joined Horner to write the song.

In 1988, the track received two Grammy Awards, including the “Song of the Year” category.

It competed with the below songs to win the honor:

• Whitney Houston’s “Didn’t We Almost Have It All”
• Suzanne Vega’s “Luka”
• U2’s “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
• “La Bamba“