Remembering When a Last-Minute Plot Change Led to a Classic John Hughes Movie Song From OMD in 1986

Hit singles can come from anywhere. They occasionally emerge as the product of careful planning over a long stretch of time. More often than not, bouts of sudden inspiration bring them to life.

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In one memorable case in the 80s, an iconic song came from the desperation of a band forced to change course on the fly due to a fickle movie director. We’re talking about “If You Leave”, the 1986 smash ballad from OMD from the film Pretty In Pink.

Calling America

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark had built up a massive following in their native UK by the mid-80s. Focusing on electronic music and offbeat subject matter, the band put together a string of highly regarded hits and albums in the first half of the decade.

But in the United States, they were little more than a cult band circa 1986. That said, they had one crucial US fan in the film director John Hughes. Hughes wanted OMD to do a song for his 1986 film Pretty In Pink.

There was simply no way that the band could decline this offer. Just a year earlier, the Scottish band Simple Minds rose from obscurity in the US to the top of the charts with “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” from the Hughes film The Breakfast Club. OMD was looking for a similar short cut to American success.

A Ducky Dilemma

They found out the plot of the movie, which centered on Molly Ringwald’s teenage heroine and her romantic decision between a nerd played by Jon Cryer and a popular rich kid played by Andrew McCarthy. OMD came up with the song “Goddess Of Love”, which Hughes loved. And then everything changed.

When Hughes brought his film to test audiences, they mostly loved it. But they couldn’t abide the original ending, which saw Ringwald choosing Cryer’s character over McCarthy’s. They firmly believed the opposite should take place. Hughes relented and decided to change the ending. And that meant that OMD needed to come up with a new song.

Imagine being in the shoes of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, the two chief songwriters of OMD. You’ve been given your big chance to break through in America, and then you find out that you have to start from scratch and deliver a fitting song almost immediately.

Coming Through in the Clutch

Hughes needed the song quickly, and OMD didn’t have much choice anyway because they were scheduled for some live shows. They rented a studio and some equipment and hustled to try to come up with a song suitable for Hughes’ new ending.

You know how they say that pressure creates diamonds? Well, some of the urgency and desperation rubbed off in “If You Leave”, which the band essentially created and recorded in a span of less than a day. McCluskey’s anguished cries fit the tone of the movie’s revised final scene to a tee. And music fans who never even saw the film discovered a stunner of a ballad on the radio.

“If You Leave” delivered exactly what OMD wanted. The song soared to the Top 5 on the US pop charts with the track in 1986. We’re guessing that the band felt the success was worth that frantic 24 hours or so that it took to create this song on demand.

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