“Mr. Lonely” helped make Bobby Vinton one of the biggest stars of the ’60s, and the single has been covered countless times since then. Now Angel Olsen has offered her take of the track, alongside composer Emile Mosseri, as part of the soundtrack of Kajillionaire, a Miranda July film that drops this month. Olsen and Mosseri’s rendition plays up the tender elements of the song, with Olsen’s mostly-hushed vocals gliding across Mosseri’s lush instrumentation.
When discussing the film’s music, July and Mosseri both expressed interest in getting Olsen involved. Mosseri said, “At Sundance, when Miranda and I started talking about making a version of ‘Mr. Lonely’ for the album, Angel’s name was at the top of the list. We got lucky! She happened to be in LA for a week right before the pandemic hit. We built a version of the song out of the fabric of the score, and Angel came by and sang it so beautifully. It was a truly magical day.”
Olsen says she was immediately interested in collaborating with them: “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.”
Listen to Olsen and Mosseri’s “Mr. Lonely” cover above.