"My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion

How could I blog about the sinking of the RMS Titanic and not include Céline Dion singing the Hell out of the instantly timeless ballad My Heart Will Go On? I mean, I could easily do it - especially given how I feel generally about her David Foster-esque caterwauling - but in the spirit of completeness (and padding) I've included it as well.

With music by James Horner and lyrics by Will Jennings, the song was a massive hit everywhere in 1998, helped in part by the video, which was directed by Bille Woodruff; the theme song of James Cameron's effects-heavy if screenplay-light 1997 blockbuster Titanic, Cameron originally did not want the song for his film - likely afraid it might take even a scintilla of attention away from him. Horner eventually convinced him to include the track, which went on to become not only the best-selling single of 1998 but one of the best-selling singles of all time, as well as winning the Academy Award for Best Original song, four Grammy Awards, and a Golden Globe among many other accolades.

Which just goes to show you a) what James Cameron knows, and b) what opportunity for free cross-promotion one of Hollywood's biggest egoes might have passed up were it not for the cooler (and smaller) heads around him*.

*In the interest of full disclosure I should say that I worked one day with James Cameron, on the series finale of Dark Angel - an episode called Freak Nation... He was a major-league douchebag. Not an artist with a vision, not a perfectionist, a great big steaming pile of bully!
*