A new Paul McCartney song “In the Blink of An Eye,” part of the forthcoming Ethel & Ernest movie, made its first appearance early Friday (Oct. 28) morning. The track appears across iTunes’ international stores (but not in the U.S. at time of reporting) in the advance pre-order listing for the soundtrack album.
Ethel & Ernest, an animated film, is taken from the graphic novel by Raymond Briggs (The Snowman) about the lives of two Londoners. The characters were based on his parents. The film stars the voices of Jim Broadbent and Brenda Blethyn in the title roles and Harry Collett and Luke Treadaway as the author in his younger and later days.
From a 60-second preview, the sound of “In the Blink of An Eye” is reminiscent of “(I Want To) Come Home,” the song McCartney wrote for Everybody’s Fine, the 2009 film starring Robert DeNiro. That song was nominated for several awards — a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Song by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the DFCS Award for Best Original Song by the Denver Film Critics Society and the World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Song for a Film, according to IMDB.com – but didn’t win any of them.
For now, the full album can only be ordered from iTunes in the U.K. and via the music store’s international channels (including Australia) and at Amazon.co.uk. The album’s advance track listings features a number of songs by Carl Davis, who collaborated with McCartney on “Liverpool Oratorio.”
The soundtrack also includes a second McCartney family contribution in a new arrangement by Davis of a song composed by McCartney’s late father, Jim. The song, “Walking in the Park With Eloise” was previously released in 1974 under the group name The Country Hams, which was made up of Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine and others, plus Chet Atkins and Floyd Cramer. The song was recorded during McCartney’s sessions with Wings in Nashville.
Watch the Ethel & Ernest trailer below.