Bruce Springsteen revealed last October that a song he’d written for the Harry Potter franchise in 2001 had been rejected by the studio and had simply been sitting by itself gathering dust for the past 16 years.
On Friday, the song, “I’ll Stand By You Always” finally dropped on Soundcloud, allowing the vast majority of us to hear for the first time Springsteen’s gospely ballad about “the ghosts and goblins” and a “kingdom of love” that wouldn’t feel out of place in a 1990s romantic drama starring, say, Kevin Costner and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
At the time of his reveal four months ago, Springsteen described it as “a pretty lovely song” that he wrote for his eldest son, saying “it was a big ballad that was very uncharacteristic of something I’d sing myself.”
As the Daily Dot’s Gavia Baker-Whitelaw wrote at the time, “as a quintessentially American rock star, Springsteen isn’t exactly the first person who comes to mind for a guest spot on a Harry Potter soundtrack.”
That’s true, and maybe this song doesn’t exactly fit the Harry Potter franchise. But it’s still an awfully sweet ballad that Springsteen and Harry Potter fans can both enjoy.
H/T Rolling Stone