Entertainment

Who Sings "Unforgettable" At The End Of 'Finding Dory'? Critics Call The Cover "Stunning"

by Jenn Rose

Disney's long-awaited sequel to Finding Nemo is all about Dory, a blue tang with a memory impairment who's on a quest to reunite with her family, who she has trouble remembering. So naturally, "Unforgettable" makes a perfect theme song. However, apologies to Nat King Cole; kids these days aren't so big on standards. Lucky for them, Ellen DeGeneres, the voice of the titular fish, called in a favor and got Sia to sing "Unforgettable" for Finding Dory.

The tearjerker of a song is perfect for a tearjerker of a movie, which, as E! News pointed out, is nearly always the case with Pixar films. The singer stopped by Ellen's show to perform the song last month (dressed as a jellyfish, maybe?) and the host revealed that she'd personally asked her friend to cover the song. "I can't imagine anyone else doing this," Ellen told Sia after her performance. Sia confessed that "Dory's story makes me teary," to which Ellen replied, "Dory's story makes a lot of people teary." Same. Only Pixar could make adults cry over a fish, a stuffed animal, or an imaginary marble-hoarding hybrid of a cat, an elephant, a dolphin, and a wad of cotton candy. I mean, really.

Rumor has it that the song, written in 1951 by Irving Gordon, was originally titled "Uncomparable," but Gordon was asked to change it (good call). Nat King Cole recorded the song in 1951, and it was re-recorded 40 years later as a posthumous duet between the late Cole and his daughter, Natalie, who went on to win three Grammy Awards in 1992 for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. "Unforgettable" has garnered scores of covers over the years from the likes of jazz legend Dinah Washington, Rat Packer Sammy Davis, Jr., standards crooner Johnny Mathis, and the Gambler himself, Kenny Rogers. Heck, it might be easier to compile a list of people who haven't covered "Unforgettable;" even Jackie Chan and Ani DiFranco recorded a duet in 2003.

So does this latest version measure up? The critics seem to think so. Rolling Stone and Vulture both referred to Sia's "Unforgettable" cover as "stunning," Spin called the singer a "vocal powerhouse," and Elle dared its readers to "try to hold back the tears" while listening to it. MoviePilot.com's D.C. Fenoff called the "breathtaking" cover "the most beautiful rendition I've ever heard" and argued for an exception to the Academy's ban on cover songs winning Oscars. That's some pretty high praise.