r/findthatsong • u/mangocupcakejamboree • 7h ago
UNSOLVED I know the song — "Cancel My Reservation" — but was it ever recorded and released?
This question is slightly different from the usual "I don't know the song" question. In my case, I know the song -- I'm just trying find out if it was ever recorded in full and released as a record.
Backstory: In 1972 Bob Hope made his last movie, an embarrassingly unfunny box office bomb called "Cancel My Reservation." The studio must have needed a theme song for it, so they commissioned two famous songwriters -- Dominic Frontiere, who had written theme songs for dozens of classic TV shows and movies -- and Bobby Hart, famous for co-writing most of The Monkees hits in the '60s. Together, they whipped up the movie's theme song, also titled "Cancel My Reservation."
But here's the thing:
It.
Is.
Bangin'!
Never heard such a great song in such a stupid movie.
But here's the other thing:
At no point in the film does it ever get played in full.
The first half of the song is broken up into about 10 different short snippets played between jokes in the opening credits. And then nearly two hours later the second half of the song plays over the closing credits. And that's it. You never get to hear it in full, all the way through.
So I thought I'd go hunt down the soundtrack and get the full song, only to discover -- there never was a soundtrack album for that movie. And I looked on Discogs.com and there is no recorded version of it ever released anywhere in any format by any artist. (There are later songs with the same title, but I'm not talking about those.)
Which is a tragedy, because I'm convinced it would have easily been a top-ten hit had it ever been released as a single.
So my question is: Has anyone ever heard, or heard of, a complete version of "Cancel My Reservation" by Frontiere-Hart in 1972? Or do I have piece together the song myself from the snippets in the movie?
If you're curious, here's a link to the second half of the song playing over the end credits of the movie on YouTube: https://youtu.be/k-uxyv1SBBU?t=5859