If you remember the ‘American Pie’ films, you know how raunchy they were and a song that was linked to the film as sort of a theme song was the song “Laid” by the band James. The song was written by Tim Booth, Larry Gott and Jim Glennie, however, never appeared in the movies only in the first two films movie trailers. It wasn’t until the 2003 film, ‘American Pie: The Wedding’, that it appeared, but it wasn’t the James version of the song. Instead it was a cover by Matt Nathanson. I guess James wanted too much money for it and the film could only afford a cover version of that. And why not Matt as he has the chops to do a faithful rendition of the song.

The song is just as raunchy as the movies, but Matt stays true to the James version and really delivers a stellar performance. This is probably the first time I ever heard anything by Matt and now 20 years later, I am still collecting his stuff and a massive fan. And in my hunts for Matt Nathanson product, I found a Promo CD from Europe for the song and only that song. My copy was bought from Austria thanks to Discogs. There is another version out there that is the US Promo and it has the Soundtrack album cover as the cover of the Promo (and yes, I am on the hunt for it and will get it soon and when I do, I’ll update this post to show it). You can get the song on the ‘American Pie: The Wedding’ Soundtrack, but I don’t think it is on any studio album from Matt so you either get the promo or the movie soundtrack.

Since it is a cover, maybe I should do The Original vs. The Cover post on it to see which version is better. We will see, someday. For now, give the song a listen and let me know what you think. I think he did a great job capturing the essence of the James song and yet, for me, it is all Matt and his styling. I like it a lot and it was my starting point, so it has a special place in my heart.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!