Tom Hanks has listed the songs he could not live without. In an interview with Kirsty Young for BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Hanks listed the songs he would need if he were to get stranded on a desert island.
The programme has been an iconic part of British broadcasting since it started in 1942 when it was created by the playwright, novelist and radio producer Roy Plomley. Its premise is one we’ve all likely discussed among friends or around the dinner table: What eight songs would you choose to accompany you on a desert island?
Hanks’ list includes:
- Dean Martin & Line Renaud (Leen Reno) – Relax-Ay-Voo
- The Beatles – There’s a Place
- Dusty Springfield – Doodlin
- Richard Strauss Main Title: Also Sprach Zarathustra
- Alfred Newman, Ken Darby – Main Title: How The West Was Won
- Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime
- LL Cool J – Mama Said Knock You Out
- Derek and the Dominos – Layla
The actor was moved to tears during the 2016 broadcast, when retelling his experience of watching Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was backed by the orchestral track of Strauss’s ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’. The cinema had offered Hanks a place of stability during what was an unsettled childhood.
He told Young: “This was the ‘wow’ moment of my life going from a kid trying to figure out what’s interesting in this life to young man yearning to be an artist.
“I started asking myself: ‘How do I find the vocabulary for what’s rattling around in my head?’. Not long after I started going to the American Conservatory theatre by myself to see plays I had no idea even existed.”
Young then asked about what he had been feeling and Hanks began to get emotional saying “what have you done to me?” in a humorous manner.
As she apologised, he added: “No, it’s all right, because I put too much thought into this list. What it was, it was the vocabulary of loneliness.”
He then proceeded to get emotional when discussing his song choice of Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads. Reflecting on his first date with partner of more than 30 years, Rita Wilson, the two had gone to see the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense and have since shared an unbreakable bond.