"Our Town" is a song used in Disney/Pixar's 2006 animated film, Cars. It was composed by Randy Newman, and performed by James Taylor, which appears on the Cars (Original Motion Picture) Soundtrack album made by Walt Disney Records.
The song is a ballad that recounts the economic decline of the fictional town of Radiator Springs and Route 66 after the construction of Interstate 40.
At the 49th Grammy Awards (given on February 11, 2007), the song won the award for Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media. The same night, Newman's work for Cars won for Music in an Animated Feature Production, at the 34th Annie Awards. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth.
Lyrics
Long ago, but not so very long ago,
the world was different
Oh, yes it was
You settle down, and you build a town and made it there
And you watch it grow
It was your town
Time goes by
Time brings changes
You change, too
Nothing comes that you can't handle, so on you go
You never see it coming, when the world caves in on you
On your town
There's nothing you can do
Main street isn't main street anymore
Lights don't shine as brightly as they shone before
Tell the truth, lights don't shine at all
In our town
Sun comes up each morning, just like it's always done
Get up, go to work, and start the day
You open up for business, that's never gonna come
As the world rolls by, a million miles away
Main street isn't main street anymore
No one seems to need us like they did before
It's hard to find a reason left to stay
But it's our town
We love it anyway
Come what may
It's our town
