When She Loved Me

"When She Loved Me" is a song written by American musician Randy Newman and recorded by Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan for Pixar's animated film Toy Story 2 (1999).

The song is sung from the perspective of character Jessie, a toy cowgirl, as she reveals her backstory by reflecting upon her defunct relationship with her original owner, Emily, by whom she was outgrown.

Heard in the film during a flashback sequence, the filmmakers decided to incorporate a song into the montage during which Jessie details her backstory to Woody after multiple attempts to show the character relaying her experience verbally proved unsuccessful.

Newman initially felt that the song was inappropriate, doubting that young children would be interested in it; he changed his mind after screen tests showed promising results.

[5] At a Toy Story 2 test screening, Newman was surprised to find that even the youngest children appeared to remain attentive during the song,[6] despite its slow tempo and mature, emotional themes.

[9] He considers "When She Loved Me" to be among his favorite film compositions and one of the best songs he has written for a movie,[6][10] and found it easier than writing for his own studio albums because of Disney's clear vision and instructions.

[17][18] She ultimately immediately cried upon hearing it for the first time,[14] saying Newman's demo reminded her of Jim Henson's original performance of "Bein' Green" as Kermit the Frog.

[17] Actors Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, the voices of Sheriff Woody Pride and Buzz Lightyear, respectively, were moved to tears upon watching "When She Loved Me" for the first time.

[33] Before the scene ends, it offers Jessie (and audiences) a moment of false hope by showing the doll being rediscovered, retrieved from underneath Emily's bed and held as though she is about to be played with once again,[47] only to be placed inside a cardboard box and left on the side of a road to be donated to charity.

"[5] Daly described "When She Loved Me" as the "weepiest moment" in the Toy Story trilogy,[6] while Michael Mallory of the Los Angeles Times believes that both the song "encompasses the film's key message".

[30] Contributors to the book Toy Story: How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature found "When She Loved Me" to be the "tragic inverse" of the series' theme song "You've Got a Friend in Me" due to its melancholy tone and outlook.

[40] Set nearly in the center of the original Toy Story trilogy, GamesRadar+ contributor Simon Kinnear identified the scene as the point where the series transitions "from a tale of childhood imagination to a mature reflection on growing up".

"[61] Similar, Consequence of Sound contributor Allison Shoemaker wrote "The sequence manages to convey not only the ache of being left behind by someone you love, but the inevitable tragedy of growing up (and getting old).

[53] Ben Pobjie, a writer for Medium, observed that the singer's "silken Canadian pipes turn a desperately sad song into a real wrist-slitter," comparing it to Newman's own "I Will Go Sailing No More" from the first film.

[73] According to Brad Green of Urban Cinefile, the ballad is a lament about "platonic, unconditional and enchantingly innocent love", themes he believes are seldom explored in mainstream pop music.

[5] Richard Walters, editor of the book The Singer's Musical Theatre Anthology - Teen's Edition: Tenor, believes that the song "takes on a different meaning" in the event that it is separated from the plot of the film and performed by a male vocalist.

[82] Film critic Peter Bradshaw, writing for The Irish Times, wrote that he only "realised that the song is a parable for the parents' fear of abandonment by their children who won't want to play with them when they grow up" after becoming a father himself.

[84] Animation film critic Michael Mallory said "only the stoniest of viewers will remain unaffected" by the song, and found "there are Oscar winners out there who would be hard-challenged to match the performance in that scene".

[86] In a retrospective analysis of Newman's music, Paste's Tim Grierson believes that, despite sounding "mawkish" at times, the elements of "piercing emotion" the musician incorporates into his film scores prevents "When She Loved Me" from "drift[ing] into pure sap".

[59] Jim Lane of News Review called McLachlan's voice "sublime", in addition to naming the track "the most heartbreaking song ever composed for a motion picture".

[107] PopMatters' Chris Ingalls called Newman's decision to include an instrumental version of the ballad on the album "a smart move" that "allows the listener to hear the sad, aching melody unadorned.

[108] In 2006, musician Steve Tyrell recorded the song for his cover album The Disney Standards,[109] which Christopher Loudon of JazzTimes described as a "gorgeously reflective" rendition.

[114] Her first professional recording independent from an acting project, Mendler opted to offer a more upbeat interpretation of the ballad by incorporating guitars into its arrangement while respecting McLachlan's original.

While Jeremy Williams-Chalmers of The Yorkshire Times praised the "unquestionable dexterity" of the three female singers' vocals, he found that the track "hardly fits with either the group's signature sound or the album's implicit Christmas joviality.

[131] On their 2020 album The Corner of Broadway and Main Street, Volume 2, a cappella ensemble Voctave performs an arrangement with singer Liz Callaway as a guest soloist.

[135] The song's sad tone has frequently drawn comparisons to McLachlan's television commercials for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

[42] Uproxx identified "When She Loved Me" as one of Pixar's "Moments ... Guaranteed To Make You Weep", about which author Josh Kurp wrote embodies "the thought and mindfulness ... put into Toy Story 2", calling it "almost as sad as Sarah McLachlan's ASPCA commercial.

[23] Similarly, John Boone of Entertainment Tonight, while ranking "When She Loved Me" Pixar's fourth most tear-jerking moment, joked, "Between this and those adoption commercials, WHAT is your problem, Sarah McLachlan?!

"[58] Consequence of Sound's Allison Shoemaker believes the ballad is among Pixar's "most potent" scenes "that punches you in the gut", calling it one of Newman's "biggest heartbreakers" before jokingly concluding, "Sarah McLachlan's vocal performance does all the things you remember from those awful animal abuse commercials.

[83] Including it among 10 "film soundtrack moments that'll have you crying in your popcorn", BBC Online called the ballad "the most heartbreaking story in the world" while writing that McLachlan's performance "left a generation of children looking to their parents and asking: "Mummy, why are you sad?