The first song I remember hearing
Dean Martin – ‘That’s Amore’
“My dad was Bulgarian, my mum was Greek and they used to sing this together. Because it sounded like an Italian song, they could relate to it as well as that whole Rat Pack era – Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr.. I grew up in Hollywood, so it was very showbiz. When I was younger, we would be driving and some song would come on the radio. My mum would say, in her Greek accent, ‘That song [is] going to be a hit.’ I would think, ‘How do you know? You don’t know anything about pop music!’ Cut to a week later: that song’s at Number One.”
The first album I ever owned
The Beatles – ‘Meet The Beatles!’
“There was a woman in our neighbourhood who worked at Capitol Records. She was so cool and whenever a new album came out by The Beatles, she would bring it to us. So we had this on vinyl and my brother and sister and I just fought over it. We played it over and over and over. With [Beatlemania], you felt like you were part of something that was so new and so fresh. I knew that this was not my parents’ music. This was definitely our stuff.
“I’m very grateful for the friendship I’ve had with Paul McCartney. I said to him one day, ‘You were so young and you were writing these really deep, profound songs. I can’t wrap my head around it!’ He was like, ‘I know! Like, ‘Yesterday / All my troubles seemed so far away.’ From when – when I was 10!?’”
The first gig I went to
Led Zeppelin at The Forum in Los Angeles, 1972 or ‘73
“This was at the height of Led Zeppelin. They played The Forum a lot in the ‘70s, but it has to have been ’72 or ’73 because I was still in high school. The shoes that were popular at that time were wedges called Corkies. We were so excited to get to the concert – we didn’t want to miss anything – that we were running from the parking lot to the venue. I took a tumble and landed – boom, boom, boom! – on the ground.”
The song that reminds me of home
Joni Mitchell – ‘California’
“Joni was travelling a lot and goes to Greece in the song, but [says that] nothing compares to California. When she mentioned Greece, I thought, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m from Greece! We should be best friends!’ The funny thing is that my high school graduation was at the Hollywood Bowl in 1974. The only other time I’ve ever set foot onstage at the Hollywood Bowl was in 2024, 50 years later, when I performed at the Joni Jam [the star-studded tribute show at which Mitchell also performed]. It was Elton John, Annie Lennox, Allison Russell, Jon Batiste, Jacob Collier, Meryl Streep – and me!”
The song I wish I’d written
Bob Dylan – ‘Make You Feel My Love’
“We were on vacation and it was on my husband’s [Tom Hanks] iPod. I didn’t want to go all the way back [to the hotel] to get my iPod, so I picked up his and put on his headphones. This song comes up on shuffle and I thought, ‘I’ve gotta play that again!’ I just couldn’t believe this song. I thought it was perfect. It’s so romantic. When he hits on his romantic side, that’s my favourite Bob Dylan.”
The song I can’t get out of my head
Rita Wilson – ‘Sound Of A Woman’
“I’ve been rehearsing and performing the title track from my new album, so I can’t get it out of my head! The album is about the experiences that women have. I can come to that because I’ve lived a life. It wouldn’t be believable for me to be writing heartbreak songs or falling-in-love songs because I’ve been in love for quite a long time. It’s taken me a really long time to even get to my own voice – metaphorically and literally because I came to songwriting late.”
The song I can no longer listen to
“I can’t answer this one because I love music so much that even if it’s bad, I’m gonna find something good about it!” [NME plays Wilson ‘The Birdie Song’ to test the theory and she doesn’t even find that annoying!]”
The song that makes me want to dance
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – ‘Uptown Funk’
“I’m sorry but if I hear that song, it’s like, ‘Let’s go! Stand up!’ I just love that song. It does so many different things musically – it’s like three different vibes happening in one. If I’m driving, I’m like, ‘Lemme pull over – I’ve gotta dance to this song.’”
The song that makes me cry
CeCe Winans – ‘Goodness Of God’
“It has to be CeCe’s version because the way she sings it is just heartbreaking. It’s about how God has never let you down and as a person of faith, I really do think that’s true.”
The song I do at karaoke
Naughty By Nature – ‘Hip Hop Hooray’
“I’m gonna spit some flow for you. It took me about a month to learn that song for a movie [2019’s Boy Genius] and it really impressed me how intricate rap and hip-hop is. There are so many different rhythms over the course of that song and the phrasing is so complex. That’s why it took me so long to learn it!”
“[In 2020] Tom and I got Covid and were quarantined. When we got out of it, there was talk of brain fog. I thought, ‘I’d better start refreshing my mind. I wonder if I can still remember all of ‘Hip Hop Hooray’’? I recorded myself doing it and posted it on social media. It went completely viral! The Naughty By Nature guys did a remix of the song and all the profits [more than $10,000] went to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.”
The song I want played at my funeral
Rita Wilson – ‘Throw Me A Party’
“I wrote this song because I had breast cancer in 2015. When I was diagnosed, I didn’t know what the prognosis was going to be. You start having those really deep conversations with the people that you love. I said to Tom, ‘If I should go before you, you’ve gotta be sad for a really, really long time. [Laughs.] Extraordinarily long. Uncomfortably long. Really prove it to people!’ The other thing was that I wanted to have a party. I wanted it to be a celebration of my life. I wanna be remembered as somebody who was about joy and laughter. I’m crying – I’m gonna blame this on jetlag!”
Rita Wilson’s sixth album ‘Sound of a Woman’ is out on May 1 via Sing it Loud Records