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Twilight tends to be a franchise that elicits a lot of opinions and strong feelings from people. Whether it’s an intense annoyance or extreme obsession, it’s divisive. However, the Twilight soundtracks are something many can agree on, regardless of the films: they’re good. Really good. Some of the best movie soundtracks in the last two decades, maybe? 

And Robert Pattinson’s two original songs made their way onto the first album. He wasn’t a famous actor before Twilight and enjoyed the anonymity that allowed him to make music in peace. However, they weren’t even added with his permission, at first.

Robert Pattinson and Catherine Hardwicke promote 'Twilight' at the Apple Store on Nov. 3, 2008.
Robert Pattinson and Catherine Hardwicke promote ‘Twilight’ at the Apple Store on Nov. 3, 2008 | Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

Robert Pattinson has 2 songs in ‘Twilight’

Diehard Twilight fans know about Pattinson’s songs already, but it might be hard to know otherwise. Pattinson’s singing voice is much different than his speaking voice, and one of the songs is playing softly in the background. 

After Edward saves Bella from the gross men in Port Angeles, they go to dinner. While they’re sitting and Edward finally reveals that he can read minds, apart from Bella’s, Pattinson’s song “Never Think” is playing. Again, it’s subtle. 

But the song that has a major spotlight is “Let Me Sign.” It’s playing over the emotionally charged scene where Edward has to choose between turning Bella into a vampire or sucking James’ venom out. As Bella sinks into unconsciousness, the song is very prominent, with Pattinson’s voice really complimenting the scene nicely. 

Even though Pattinson had the songs done before the movie, and performed at pubs before he became a well-known actor, he wasn’t planning to have any songs in the movie. Or releasing them at all. 

“I’ve never really recorded anything — I just played in pubs and stuff — and I really didn’t want it to look like I was trying to cash in,” Pattinson told the Los Angeles Times, according to Bustle. “I hope it doesn’t come across as that. I’m not going to be doing any music videos or anything. Music is my backup plan if acting fails. I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket.”

Pattinson’s 2 original songs were put in the movie without his permission

Due to Pattinson’s desire to not look like he was “cashing in” on his fame to jumpstart a music career, the only way they got in the movie was because of Catherin Hardwicke. Hardwicke, the director of Twilight, got a hold of the songs and put them with the footage before Pattinson could say ‘No.’ 

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“We have two of Rob’s actual songs that he did create in the movie. He created them way before Twilight,” Hardwicke told the LA Times in 2008. “They’re both haunting and just beautiful. Fantastic. The fans will not be disappointed for Rob, I don’t think.”

Pattinson told the publication in another interview before the movie came out that he doesn’t know how Hardwicke got ahold of them. He thought that maybe co-star Nikki Reed (Rosalie Hale) “snuck” them off his laptop. The publication notes that Hardwicke convinced Pattinson to fully approve after seeing that cut footage. 

Pattinson thinks that the soundtracks were ‘ahead of their time’

Pattinson, again, was a musician before signing on to be a sparkly vampire. Those songs on his computer were probably for his open mic days, which he missed after becoming famous. 

“I used to love playing live at open mic nights. It’d be cathartic. I mean it was really key for me,” Pattinson told the LA Times in 2008. Unfortunately, Pattinson was really bummed about not being able to do that anymore. “I think, ‘Wow, I just lost a huge chunk of my life.’”

Over a decade later, and Pattinson has only gotten bigger so don’t expect to see him at the local bar. However, as the years have gone by, he really appreciates the newfound love the movies have received.

“It’s a fascinating second wave of people appreciating it, which is kind of cool,” Pattinson told USA Today in 2019. “I think when anything becomes a massive phenomenon, there’s always people who get annoyed because it’s just everywhere. But now it seems like a retro thing: the soundtrack, the fashion. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s so late 2000s.'”

And speaking of, Pattinson said that he caught New Moon on TV at the time and was reminded how good the music of Twilight was.

“It genuinely does have an incredibly good soundtrack,” he said about New Moon, and then touched on them all. “I completely forgot, but the soundtracks were quite ahead of their time.”

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