Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont cowrote and codirected the 2001 film, which follows struggling rock band the Pussycats as they're discovered by a nefarious record executive with an ulterior motive.
The Pussycats' music, of course, features prominently in the film, and a whole group of artists (including Kaplan and Elfont) assembled to write, produce, and perform the soundtrack.
Legendary musician Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds led the charge as the executive producer, and teamed up with Gigolo Aunts' Dave Gibbs on half of the songs. Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger produced and wrote tracks as well. And Counting Crows' Adam Duritz, the Go-Go's Jane Wiedlin, and others also contributed to the film's iconic soundtrack.
But there was definitely a learning curve for Kaplan and Elfont, who first met as students at film school and worked on several songs for the movie.
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"I've always been slightly musical, but it was a whole other deal going in and working with professional songwriters," Elfont told Insider. "It boosted our confidence to the point that we thought we could write songs."
The filmmaking duo ended up cowriting some of the more memorable songs featured in "Josie and the Pussycats," including "Three Small Words," "Come On," "DuJour Around the World," and "Backdoor Lover."
Also a part of the soundtrack were several songs performed by the fictional boy-band DuJour, who mysteriously disappear at the beginning of the movie.
DuJour's songs, Kaplan said, were some of the most entertaining to write because they contain numerous double entendres. The subversive catchy hit "Backdoor Lover," for example, is quite clearly about sex.
"That was a blast. To get away with that and not have anyone say, 'No, sorry you can't make a song about butt stuff,'" Kaplan joked.
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