CHRONICLES OFTHE PAST - "My Best Friends Wedding"

I can't believe that it's already been 14 years since I received the call from a music supervisor named Bonnie Greenberg to sing a song in a new and upcoming film called "My Best Friend's Wedding". Bonnie is one of the industry's best music supervisor's and not only have we've worked together quite a bit, but we've also become good friends.

Originally I was called to sing on the one song, "I Say A Little Prayer". Eddie Arkin who is a great composer / arranger, arranged the song at the end of the film. Interestingly enough when the idea of a soulful singer came up for this film both Eddie and Bonnie mentioned myself to the director.

I was flown back to Chicago to do the pre-record of "I Say A Little Prayer". Great session, I had a chance to meet quite a few of the Chicago session singers and a few of them I'm still in touch with today. While there after I recorded the song "I Say A Little Prayer" I was also asked to do a few ad-libs on The Way You Look Tonight.  So I ended up singing on two songs not just the one.

Bonnie had told me that the director of the film would be coming by the studio because there was a possibility that they would not only want to use my voice but to also have me in the film. So I met P.J. Hogan who directed this film and was asked to become the Wedding Singer for the film. I thought, what a great privilege! I've sung on many films off-camera, but had never been asked to be on-camera.


So after finishing the recording of the 2 songs a schedule was set-up for me to come back to Chicago where they were filming this movie and be a part of the cast. August 1996 Rebecca and I flew back and had a great time. The whole cast was very nice Julia, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, we were back in Chicago a total of 10 days on the set. My schedule was a night shoot so I literally started when the sun went down and continued until the sun came up.

One night I had fallen asleep because it was about 1:30 am and I was really tired.I was in my trailer and I got a knock on the door about 2:15 am saying, "Mr. Ingram we're going to need you in about 10 minutes", this brought a whole new meaning to the lyric "The moment I wake-up..because I literally had to come from a deep sleep and do my shoot. So after that I found a way to stay awake for the rest of the time we were there.

Because of singing on the 2nd song I ended up being in 2 scenes in the film towards the end. I'm with the twins when they're singing, The Way You Look Tonight, and when I sing I Say A Little Prayer. 

All in all we had a great time. The film was released in 1997 and has become one of  the best films of Julia Roberts career. One of the ways that you can tell how old a film is, just look at the cell phones. Every time that film comes on TV or cable it's funny seeing one of the last scene's where Julia is talking on the phone and according to today's standard's it looks like she's holding up a big shoe box or something. Technology continues to change.

When the film was released I received calls from literally all over the country of people who had seen the film and told me how much they enjoyed 'My Movie'. I had to let them know that I had a very small part, and it was Julia Roberts movie, they laughed, but were happy to see me in the film.

Again I was glad to be a part of what's become a classic as part of my career in the music industry.


Until next time - Phillip