The Music
π = ♥ (Theme Song)
Written by Jamie-Sue Seal and John Latini
Performed by Bottle Rocket Cabaret with John Latini, Jamie-Sue Seal, John Sperendi, David Keeney and Colin Murphy
Engineered by Geoff Michaels at Big Sky Recording, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Jamie-Sue Seal has performed as a solo artist, in duos and with her band. She has five albums under her belt and tours around the country to the delight of audiences who love her voice and her humor. She and her duo partner John Latini, are responsible for the delicious theme song for the film.
About a year ago, I received an email from Pie Lady of Pie Town director Jane Rosemont introducing me to her new project; a film about a delightful lady in a charming place called Pie Town. I remembered one of Jane’s photos of Pie Town on a recent visit to her Santa Fe home while my duo partner John Latini and I were out west doing some gigs. Jane is an exceptional talent and I wanted a piece of the pie, so to speak, so I responded to her email asking “…need a theme song written?”
Jane sent me an email to tell me how she envisioned the song…the feel, the content, the character of the town and philosophies of the Pie Lady. She provided me with specific ingredients and I set to work putting them together. She gave me tips such as “the music should be rootsy” and phrases like “let’s all go to Pie Town.” She mentioned the names of the pies served at the Pie-O-Neer and then Jane made a key statement about Kathy Knapp, the Pie Lady herself, that John and I built the song around: “to Kathy, pie equals love.” John immediately thought of the math terms π and = and wanted to use word play to describe Kathy’s mission to feed the world with love through her pie, and how she gives a little piece of herself to everyone who walks through the door of the Pie-O-Neer.
We did some additional research about the area and discovered that the Big Array (aka VLA, Very Large Array) was nearby, that Pie Town was on U.S. Highway 60 also affectionately known as Pieway 60, and we read that the pies at the Pie-O-Neer are “flaky and crusty.”
I laid down the bones of the song and we added in all those ideas and made rhymes. We wrote lyrics, came up with a melody and then John used his skill as an award-winning songwriter and created clever relationships between the ideas and the words and the rhymes. We names the song Pie Equals Love, but it was John’s idea to use symbols as the official title: pie symbol, equal sign and a heart.
We put together a rough demo of the song in John’s living room and emailed the mp3 file along with a lyric sheet to Jane. And waited…but not for long. About 10 minutes later we received an email back from Jane with these five words: “Oh. My. God. Thank you.”
John and I have never been to Pie Town, we’ve never met Kathy or Stanley or had a bite of one of those glorious looking pies (yet), but thanks to Jane we feel like we’ve gotten our piece of the pie.
— Jamie-Sue Seal and John Latini, from the duo “Bottle Rocket Cabaret”
Composers and Performers of the theme song “π = ♥︎” from Pie Lady of Pie Town
Lyrics
I’m gonna take that highway
That ol’ U.S. Pieway 60 out beyond the Big Array
It’s gonna be so nice when I find my slice o’ life
Take my advice and follow me to Pie Town
Oh, won’t you come?
Won’t you come, come, come
Won’t you come along with me to Pie Town,
We’ll get hitched along the way and get a “piece” everyday,
If that’s the case we might just stay in Pie Town.
They got pies in rows underneath my nose,
I got my eye on a pie up in the sky,
We’ll get a belly full of lovin’ pipin’ fresh out of the oven,
I’m a Pie-O-Neer discoverin’ Pie Town
Oh, won’t you come?
Won’t you come, come, come
Won’t you come along with me to Pie Town,
And while I’m deciding’, that Pie Lady’s dividin’
And providin’ there’s any left, it’s going down.
Well, I love that Cheery Cherry and that Starry Starry Blueberry Night, the one they always seem to run out of,
You talk about nutrition, well, that Pie Lady’s on a mission
to prove to all you mathematicians that Pie Equals Love.
Oh, won’t you come?
Won’t you come, come, come
Won’t you come along with me to Pie Town,
But you better make it hasty, ’cause those pies are awfully tasty
Get some flaky, crusty pastry in Pie Town.
