Duncan Sheik's "Wishful Thinking" is the first track released from Atlantic's soundtrack to Great Expectations. The single was inspired by and written specifically for the film, which stars Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft, and Robert DeNiro. A 20th Century Fox film, Great Expectations is set to open nationally in January 1998.

Sheik was on the road when he was approached about contributing to the film. Fortunately, Duncan had set up a mini studio on his tour bus in order to record new songs while traveling. He soon recorded a demo version of "Wishful Thinking.

"I did it almost as an exercise," Duncan says, "like, could I record some stuff on the bus and get away with it. And it worked. It worked like a charm. The demo was cool, so I went in and did a more proper recording of it. That was process."

"Wishful Thinking" fit seamlessly with director Alfonso Cuaron and composer Peter Doyle's vision, despite the fact that, unlike many of the other musicians participating, Sheik created his song autonomously, without the influence of the film score.

"I had written the song," Sheik recalls, "and then I was sent some of the score. I listened to it and, by super fortuitous circumstances, there was definitely a cool relationship between the song I had written and the material that they sent me."

"I feel like I got a good sense of what Alfonso was trying ot get across in the movie," he says, "The movie's kind of philosophical and 'Wishful Thinking' echoes that. That sense of ambiguity, the double-edged sword of having great expectations and how they can lead you to do great and amazing things, but how, at the end of the day, you can just be left with those expectations and nothing more. It's a pretty interesting aspect of being a human being, that the movie deals with."

(excerpted from Atlantic Record Corporations' press release)