Ask Billboard reported that the digital copy of the single has sold 1,133,000 units since being available bringing total sales to 1,791,000 copies sold in the US. The single was eventually certified gold in the United States. As a testament to the popularity of the song on the radio, the song broke the record for the then-largest radio audience ever, garnering 117 million listeners in February 1998. In addition, the song spent ten weeks at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, and was number one for two weeks on the Hot 100 Singles Sales. Regardless, it debuted at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, with sales of 360,000 copies, where it stayed for two weeks. In the United States, the song was given a limited number of copies - 690,000. "My Heart Will Go On" is Céline Dion's biggest hit and one of the best-selling singles in history, having sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. In France, My Heart Will Go On was released as a double A-side single with The Reason.Ĭoincidentally, some survivors of the Costa Concordia disaster, which has drawn comparisons to the Titanic disaster, have claimed that the song was playing in a restaurant when Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia first made impact with a rock, which eventually caused the ship to partially sink on the night of January 13, 2012. It was included later on the Back to Titanic second soundtrack album. It was also included on the following DVDs: Au cœur du stade, All the Way… A Decade of Song & Video and Live in Las Vegas - A New Day.Īt the height of the song's popularity, some radio stations in the US and the UK played an edited version of the song, that had dramatic moments of dialog from the Jack and Rose lead characters in the film inserted in between Dion's vocal lines. Live in Las Vegas, Complete Best, My Love: Essential Collection, and Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert. In addition to Dion's Let's Talk About Love and the Titanic soundtrack, "My Heart Will Go On" appears on several other albums, including Au cœur du stade, All the Way… A Decade of Song, A New Day. It was included later on the All the Way… A Decade of Song & Video DVD. The music video was directed by Bille Woodruff and released at the end of 1997. The words, "There is some love that will not go away", are not performed by Dion in any available version of the song, however, they are still included on Dion's official site. In the Let's Talk about Love album booklet, the lyrics of the song contain an additional line between a second chorus and the final verse. This version appears on the 4-track maxi single as well as on Dion's album, Let's Talk About Love. When the single was to be released to radio, it was produced further by Walter Afanasieff who added string and electric guitar, as well as rearranged portions of the song. The single also played over the ending credits of the film. Franglen mixed the final film and soundtrack version, expanding on the demo and adding orchestra to the final chorus. The original Horner/Franglen produced version of the ballad appears on the Titanic soundtrack and has an extended ending with longer, segmented vocalizations by Dion.
After playing it several times, Cameron declared his approval, although worried that he might be criticised for "going commercial at the end of the movie." Cameron also wanted to appease anxious studio executives and "saw that a hit song from his movie could only be a positive factor in guaranteeing its completion."
Horner waited until Cameron was in an appropriate mood before presenting him with the song. Her manager and husband René Angélil convinced her to sing on this demo version, which was something she hadn't done for many years. He programmed and arranged an extensive demo to take to Dion. Franglen had worked with Celine Dion for several years on many of her major hits to date. Horner showed the piano sketch to Simon Franglen, who was working with him on electronic textures and synthesizers for the film score. When Dion originally heard the song, she did not want to record it.
Director James Cameron did not want such a song, but Will Jennings went ahead anyway and wrote the lyrics.
Horner then wanted to make a full vocal song out of it, for use in the end credits of the film. James Horner had originally composed the song as an instrumental motif that is used in several scenes during the film, including the "I'm flying" scene and when Jack makes the drawing of Rose.