The remix of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1’s “The Hanging Tree,” which we first complained about in December, is now available for purchase.
Republic Records and Lionsgate decided to remix James Newton Howard’s “Hanging Tree” – featuring vocals from Jennifer Lawrence – after the song was warmly received and debuted at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
While we’re all for hearing “The Hanging Tree” on the radio, we can’t accept this remix because it completely kills the song’s meaning. The original is a song Katniss learned from her father. It’s a song written in the voice of a dead person asking their lover to cross into death.
The remix was designed to sound like a Top 40 radio song you would hear in a club.
Called the “Rebel Remix” – as if rebels in The Hunger Games would actually remix this for any reason whatsoever – is now available for purchase for $1.29 on iTunes. You can also stream it on Spotify.
Here’s the song on YouTube:
We loved Howard’s work on the original song (below). It’s chilling, it’s powerful, it’s meaningful, and it’s a highlight of the film*. To see it “remixed” is a little sad because the purpose of the original song was overlooked.
Here’s the original:
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 hits theaters this November.
*But it’s not worthy of an Oscar, evidently.
Related: Six scenes from the book you won’t see in Mockingjay, Part 1
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