Mandy Moore Saves Stipe

Mandy Moore and Michael Stipe have recorded a cover of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" for Moore's upcoming movie Saved!.

The R.E.M. singer, who co-produced the teen spoof, wanted to join Moore after hearing her initial rendition of the song. "He left me such a sweet little message like, 'You have such a beautiful voice,'" Moore says. "That he wanted to be a part of it was so fucking cool. He actually invited me into his studio to meet the guys."

In Saved! -- which Stipe has likened to "monster vampire high school kind of movies, only here the monsters are Jesus-freak teenagers" -- Moore stars alongside a wheelchair-bound McCauley Caulkin as a Bible-thumping senior at American Christian High.

"My character just thinks that she is so much better than everybody else because she has this personal relationship with Jesus," Moore says. "I got to play the bad girl, which is so much more fun than what I've been doing: the girl who always gets the guy at the end of the film."

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

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