Nick Nolte Albert Brooks sings a Prince song

Ever wonder what Tom Waits would sound like if Tom Waits sucked?

Probably a lot like Nick Nolte this.

As you’ll recall, the 1994 James L. Brooks movie “I’ll Do Anything” was conceived and produced as a musical. Prince wrote songs for it. Test audiences hated the music, so “I’ll Do Anything” was recut and released as a straight comedy.

Out of the trash heap of cinematic history comes Nick Nolte’s this recording of Prince’s title tune. Click here to hear it. But be warned: it stinks on hot fucking ice.

Hat-tip to blogger Edshugeo the GodMoor, who can point you to the download site.

UPDATE (08/14/07): Oops! I passed along some bad information. “Cage free brown” comments at my Vox blog that this is Albert Brooks singing, not Nick Nolte. Which means, I guess, that the badness is semi-intentional and supposed to be funny.

Here’s what Brooks told an interviewer for Film Comment in 1999:

“I wish you could have seen the musical (version). That was the greatest thing in the world, and it broke my heart that the movie came out like it did. ...

“You weren’t going to buy my albums and make out to them, but I was sort of in the Rex Harrison vein. I sold a song and I did it within the character. I had the title song, ‘I’ll Do Anything.’ People were lined up to see the preview of that terrible movie that my character produced, and he was going up and down the line singing, ‘I’ll do anything to make you like me.’ ...”

Oh well. I still kinda wish it was Nick Nolte.