"When She Loved Me" is a song from Toy Story 2 written by Randy Newman and sung by Sarah McLachlan from the perspective of Jessie about how she was once loved by a young girl named Emily, but eventually forgotten as she grew older. Woody is moved by the story as Jessie ends it with, "You never forget kids like Emily or Andy...but they forget you."
This song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song in 2000, where McLachlan performed it at the awards ceremony, but the award went to Phil Collins for another Disney song "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan, which was released on the same year as Toy Story 2. It is listed as Track 2 on the Toy Story 2 Soundtrack.
Lyrics[]
When somebody loved me
Everything was beautiful
Every hour we spent together
Lives within my heart
And when she was sad
I was there to dry her tears
And when she was happy, so was I
When she loved me
Through the summer and the fall
We had each other, that was all
Just she and I together
Like it was meant to be
And when she was lonely
I was there to comfort her
And I knew that she loved me
So the years went by
I stayed the same
But she began to drift away
I was left alone
Still I waited for the day
When she'd say I will always love you
Lonely and forgotten
I'd never thought she'd look my way
And she smiled at me and held me
Just like she used to do
Like she loved me
When she loved me
When somebody loved me
Everything was beautiful
Every hour we spent together
Lives within my heart
When she loved me
Trivia[]
- This song was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Original Song, along with "Blame Canada" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, losing to "You'll Be in My Heart" for the Disney animated feature, Tarzan, written by Phil Collins. The first Toy Story movie was also nominated with "You've Got a Friend in Me" (which was also in the sequel) but lost that award to "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas. Because of this, Toy Story 2 is the only Toy Story movie not to win an Oscar.
- The music that goes with this song can be heard in Toy Story 3.
- This is the first Toy Story and Pixar song not to be performed by Randy Newman; however, he does play the piano.
- Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, the voices of Woody and Buzz, have admitted that the flashback sequence featuring this song made them cry during early Toy Story 2 screenings.[1]