![\"Catherine](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
From her early days on SCTV to Best in Show, Schitt’s Creek, and more, she delivered songs with comic obliviousness or touching tenderness<\/p>\n
\n\tCatherine O\u2019Hara\u2019s talent seemed like a renewable resource. With voices and walks and wigs and timing, she could do off-kilter celebrity parodies and never-seen-before characters; she could do outlandish, excitement, enticement, drunk, delusional, heartbreak, quiet concern, and tender kindness \u2014 and in all of those incarnations, she could sing. Some actors go their whole careers without even a whistle, but O\u2019Hara joyously threw herself into any operatic situation she could. And while sketch comedy in particular lends itself to musical numbers, so many of O\u2019Hara\u2019s great vocal performances aren\u2019t from her SCTV days, but from her later work, where the talent (or lack of) on display demonstrates deep-rooted facets of the characters she creates. People who sing \u2014 organically, often badly, usually absurdly \u2014 because of who they are and how they want to express themselves, not because the script tells them to. Below, some of O\u2019Hara\u2019s most memorable musical moments.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018Best in Show\u2019: \u201cGod Loves a Terrier\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\tCould there be a better tribute to O\u2019Hara\u2019s genius than a montage in her honor at the Westminster Dog Show<\/a>? Shown on the Jumbotron at Madison Square Garden just before the terrier group was announced, the shout-out is a loving tribute to Best in Show\u2019s indelible Cookie Fleck. The most endearing character in the movie by a mile, Cookie captivates (as<\/a> always<\/a>) with an ode to her beloved Winky. The song (not to be confused with the Flecks\u2019 other banger, \u201cTerrier Style<\/a>\u201d) hits all the right notes of dog adulation, even when Cookie doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \t\u2018Schitt\u2019s Creek\u2019: Jazzagals Audition<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tThere was so much to love about Moira Rose\u2019s arc on Schitt\u2019s Creek, but one of the best bits was her slow takeover of the Jazzagirls, the town\u2019s a cappella singing group, or as she described it, \u201ca tiny oasis in the echoing canyon I now call my social life.\u201d While Moira somehow cajoled the group to perform at her Christmas party, her daughter\u2019s graduation<\/a>, her son\u2019s wedding<\/a>, and utilize her husband<\/a>\u2019s baritone, her best performance is still her audition, where she didn\u2019t do much prep beyond securing a killer outfit and a percussion egg.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \t\u2018SCTV\u2019: Lola\u2019s Heatherton\u2019s \u2018Love Spirit\u2019<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tO\u2019Hara sang so often on SCTV it\u2019s hard to pick a favorite<\/a>. But perhaps her most beloved character was the glittery, self-absorbed, not-so-great singer Lola Heatherton, a woman who really tried to care, even to the depth of delusion<\/a>. O\u2019Hara had no problem rocking a Christmas number<\/a>, so it\u2019s not a surprise she gave Lola Heatherton a holiday special, although this one gets hijacked pretty quickly into some bleak lonely-hearts territory, as she sings by a crackling fire, \u201cI don\u2019t even know what year it is, I just know I\u2019m still alone.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u2018The Nightmare Before Christmas\u2019: \u201cSally\u2019s Song\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tAnother Christmas performance, this song in Tim Burton\u2019s gothic classic is something altogether different \u2014 not played for laughs, just heart (and heartbreak). In a 2023 interview, O\u2019Hara described it as \u201cthe combination of beautiful art, wonderful songs. And then, you know, the sort of the common theme\u2026 of the outsider character who just wants to be appreciated and loved.\u201d\u00a0Written by Danny Elfman and performed in a sensitive high soprano, \u201cSally\u2019s Song\u201d is the movie\u2019s emotional showstopper. Thirty years later, O\u2019Hara nailed it again at the Hollywood Bowl.<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0 \t\u2018Waiting for Guffman\u2019: \u201cMidnight at the Oasis\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tAs \u201cthe Lunts of Blaine,\u201d Ron and Sheila Albertson don\u2019t have to audition for Blaine, Missouri\u2019s sesquicentennial celebration musical extravaganza, but these guys are pros. O\u2019Hara\u2019s most frequent screen partner may have been Eugene Levy (don\u2019t worry<\/a>, he\u2019s there<\/a>), but here she goes next-level with Fred Willard in the first of her four film collaborations with director Christopher Guest. Complete with a pre-performance psych-up, witty banter (watch her lips move while Willard does his dialogue), dance moves and coordinating track suits, the Albertsons (travel agents who have never left Missouri) transport us all to a new, foreign world.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\u2018A Mighty Wind\u2019: \u201cA Kiss at the End of the Rainbow\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tTitle of the movie aside, this Christopher Guest joint goes lighter on the hilarity and stronger on the emotion, no more so than each time O\u2019Hara and Levy\u2019s folk duo Mitch & Mickey perform this song.\u00a0 A gimmicky confection capitalizing on their \u201csweetheart\u201d status, the titular kiss is first played for a joke (\u201cthe phenomenon of that kiss, it can\u2019t be overstated. It was a superb moment in the history of folk music and maybe\u2026 maybe a great moment in the history of humans\u201d), but in the voice of O\u2019Hara, by the time we see her perform one final time, it becomes a truly moving moment, demonstrating the bittersweet power of young love and lost chances. Nominated for an Oscar<\/a> and won a Grammy.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \t\u2018The Last Polka\u2019: The Lemon Sisters<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tAlmost 20 years before A Mighty Wind, John Candy and Eugene Levy made this parody of The Last Waltz featuring their SCTV characters, the Schmeges Brothers<\/a>. The Last Polka, which aired in 1985 on HBO (and seemingly, never again until the creation of the internet) has many offbeat moments that make it worth a watch, but the true draw is the mesmerizing Lemon Sisters (Robin Duke, O\u2019Hara, and her real-life big sister, acclaimed<\/a> musician<\/a> Mary Margaret O\u2019Hara<\/a>), a trio as dynamic onstage as they are at wrecking Schmeges\u2019 marriages.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \t\u2018Schitt\u2019s Creek\u2019: \u201cDanny Boy\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tNot since Albert Finney walked down a driveway with a tommy gun<\/a> has \u201cDanny Boy\u201d been deployed so perfectly onscreen.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how to save your husband from having a breakdown while giving a eulogy for a person he barely knows. Made extra funny when they released the outtake<\/a>. No notes.<\/p>\n \tCatherine and Mary Margaret O\u2019Hara, \u201cWe\u2019ll Meet Again\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tSince O\u2019Hara\u2019s passing last week, this 2013 clip of Mary Margaret singing at a Toronto club with Catherine on backup has made the rounds. A joyous performance. Here\u2019s to a belief in the song\u2019s sentiment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From her early days on SCTV to Best in Show, Schitt’s Creek, and more, she delivered songs with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[133167,93,61,60,59506,282],"class_list":["post-288171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-catherine-ohara","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-schitts-creek","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Sony Pictures\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: PopTv\/Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Getty Images for CineVegas\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n