Down to Earth (Peter Gabriel song)

"Down to Earth" is a song co-written and performed by English rock musician Peter Gabriel for the 2008 animated Disney-Pixar film WALL-E. It was released on June 10, 2008, by Walt Disney Records and Real World Records. Composed by Gabriel and Thomas Newman, with additional vocals from the Soweto Gospel Choir, the song is the 37th track on the soundtrack album to WALL-E, in which it is featured over the end credits.

"Down to Earth"
Single by Peter Gabriel featuring The Soweto Gospel Choir
from the album WALL-E: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack
Released	June 10, 2008
Recorded	2008
Genre	Rock world music
Length	5:58
Label	Walt Disney Real World
Songwriter(s)	Peter Gabriel (music and lyrics) Thomas Newman (music)
Peter Gabriel singles chronology
"Burn You Up, Burn You Down (Big Blue Ball Version)" (2008) "Down to Earth" (2008) "The Book of Love" / "Not One of Us" (2010)

Background

Andrew Stanton, who served as the director of WALL-E, was a fan of Gabriel's work and approached him to contribute a song for the soundtrack. Gabriel collaborated with Thomas Newman, who supplied the melody of the song, while Gabriel worked on the song's lyrics and instrumentation.^[1] Two instrumental compositions on the soundtrack, "Eve" and "Define Dancing", were also co-written by Gabriel.^[2]

"As a kid I loved animation, so I'm a huge Pixar fan," Gabriel explained to Mark Blake. "I have seen WALL-E many times as I have young children. It was also great to work with the scorer Thomas Newman... He wrote the best TV theme tune ever: for Six Feet Under."^[3]

"Down to Earth" consists of gentle piano-driven verses with more upbeat choruses, both of which are adorned with various electronic textures. The Soweto Gospel Choir appears on the song's bridge and outro. The song was engineered by Richard Chappell and mixed by Tchad Blake.^[2]

The song saw release as a promotional single for the Pixar animated feature film WALL-E. In 2019, the song was included on Gabriel's Rated PG album, which consisted of ten songs written by Gabriel that were used in film scores.^[4]

Awards

"Down to Earth" was nominated for the Best Original Song Award at the Golden Globes as well as the Best Original Song award at the 81st Academy Awards. It won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media in 2009.^[4] Another song from the film co-written by Gabriel titled "Define Dancing" won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement in 2009.^[5]

Gabriel originally planned to perform the song at the 81st Academy Awards, although he decided against it after learning that he was only allotted one minute to play the song. He had assumed that the three nominated songs "would be played in full", but was told by some producers that the segment had to be truncated due to dwindling viewership. As such, Gabriel withdrew from the ceremony and John Legend performed the song instead.^[1]

Chart performance

Chart (2008)	Peak
Canadian Singles Chart[6]	73
UK Singles Chart[7]	118