Angel Olsen & Emile Mosseri – “Mr. Lonely” (Bobby Vinton Cover)

Angel Olsen & Emile Mosseri – “Mr. Lonely” (Bobby Vinton Cover)

Way back in December 1964, at the peak of Beatlemania, throwback crooner Bobby Vinton scored his third and final #1 hit with the decidedly not-rocking ballad “Mr. Lonely.” This past summer we got a preview of old soul Angel Olsen’s cover of the song in the trailer for Miranda July’s new movie Kajillionaire, and now we get to hear the whole thing.

Olsen’s “Mr. Lonely” cover features contributions from Emile Mosseri, the composer who handled the Kajillionaire score and whose other recent credits include The Last Black Man In San Francisco and the recent second season of Amazon’s Homecoming starring Janelle Monáe. The new track maintains the maudlin, lovelorn spirit of the original, but with a proper cinematic blur. As Olsen explains in a statement, July commissioned her specifically for the cover:

Suddenly there she was. THE MIRANDA JULY. In my text messages. She was working on songs with Emile for the upcoming film Kajillionaire, which at the time I knew nothing about. I just so happened to be in Los Angeles. So I met with them both, and we talked about cadence and we talked about life and we talked about the film. And Miranda directed me to sing the cover in the way she and Emile thought it would represent the feelings behind the film. It was a lovely experience. Later, Miranda and I went outside for a little break and we did a little improv with each other. Just us.

Hear Olsen and Mosseri’s “Mr. Lonely” cover below, and check out our recent Angel Olsen cover story here.

Kajillionaire is out 9/25. Stream or purchase “Mr. Lonely” here.

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