The Peanut Butter Solution Features Celine Dion’s First English-Language Songs

French-Canadian chanteuse Celine Dion found international fame after releasing a series of English-language albums in the 1990s, but The Peanut Butter Solution boasts her first-ever English-language songs. Directed by Australian filmmaker Michael Rubbo, The Peanut Butter Solution is a kid-oriented fantasy film released in 1985 as part of the Canadian movie series Tales For All. It’s one of those typically weird kids’ movies that could only have come from the 1980s and has become something of a cult classic in the years since.

The Peanut Butter Solution follows 11-year-old Michael (Mathew Mackay) who explores an abandoned, burned-out mansion and sees a pair of ghosts that frighten him so much all his hair falls out. Luckily, those ghosts turn out to be friendly and give Michael a recipe for a magical hair-growth formula – the key ingredient of which is peanut butter. However, when Michael uses too much peanut butter it causes his hair to grow uncontrollably which attracts the attention of creepy art teacher The Signor (Michel Maillot), who kidnaps Michael and a bunch of other kids and forces them to make magical paintbrushes of out his hair.

Alongside its surreal plot, The Peanut Butter Solution also features two songs by a then up-and-coming Celine Dion titled “Listen To The Music Man” and “Michael’s Song.” Co-written by French songwriter Eddy Marnay and composer Lewis Furey, the songs were the first English-language tracks the then-teenaged Celine Dion ever recorded although they were released in her native France too under the titles “Dans La Main D’un Magician” and “La Ballade De Michel.”

According to IMDb, Celine Dion’s involvement with the soundtrack came about after producer Rock Demers crossed paths with the songstress while promoting fellow Tales For All film The Dog Who Stopped The War and was so impressed by her singing he asked her to record songs for The Peanut Butter Solution. The songs Dion recorded for The Peanut Butter Solution might not be quite as well-known as fellow 80s kids’ movie songs like Labyrinth’s “Magic Dance” or the title track from The NeverEnding Story, but they’re still pretty catchy.

The Peanut Butter Solution kick-started something of a pattern for Celine Dion, who has since contributed many more songs to movie soundtracks. She recorded a version of the title track for Disney’s 1991 animation Beauty And The Beast and sang “My Heart Will Go On” for Titanic – both of which went on to receive Academy Awards for Best Original Song. More recently, Celine Dion recorded “How Does A Moment Last Forever” for the soundtrack of Disney’s live-action Beauty And The Beast and “Ashes” for the Deadpool 2 soundtrack.