"Vanilla Sky" is a song written and recorded by Paul McCartney for the 2001 film of the same name.
McCartney was in Los Angeles working on his album Driving Rain when director Cameron Crowe came by to ask if he would write a song for his new movie. <blockquote> He showed us about a half-hour of it, and it looked very intriguing, with Tom [Cruise] acting his heart out. I said "What's the title?" He said "Vanilla Sky." I said "Oh, that's a nice title," and immediately you start thinking of rhymes with sky, fly⦠You know, it starts to kick off into something [that] doesn't look too difficult.
- Paul McCartney </blockquote> McCartney says he got inspiration from a waiter in a restaurant: <blockquote> Before the first course, he brought something we hadn't ordered. He said "Here's amuse-bouche". I said, "What is he talking about? Moozy booshy?" My limited knowledge of French, I kind of worked out that he meant like a sort of palate pleaser, or amuse your mouth, or something. So that became the first line of the song, "The chef prepares a special menu." It was gonna be "The chef prepares amuse-bouche," but I could never even pronounce [that], let alone [have it] work in the song. </blockquote> It only took McCartney about a week to finish the track: <blockquote> I just recorded it, and had Cameron over, and said "What do you think of this?" He said "I love it." </blockquote>
The song was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, for a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media, and for a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Song, winning the latter.
A live version of the song is featured on the 2002 live album Back in the U.S..