‘Paradise:’ How Music Supervisor Tom Wolfe Built the Show’s Soundtrack Using Elvis and Phil Collins Cover Songs

As the first season of Hulu's "Paradise" concluded, showrunner Dan Fogelman informed his co-music supervisors, Tom Wolfe and Manish Raval, that Graceland would play a central role in the upcoming episodes. The dystopian series' second season begins in Memphis, Tennessee, long before the catastrophic extinction-level event that ultimately devastates the planet. Viewers are introduced to Annie Clay, portrayed with remarkable nuance by Shailene Woodley, whose life unfolds in stark contrast to the impending apocalypse. Having spent her childhood caring for her mentally ill mother, Annie perseveres through medical school until a breakdown forces her to withdraw in her third year. Adrift and desperate, she accepts a position as a tour guide at Graceland—Elvis Presley's iconic Memphis estate, which draws over 500,000 visitors annually and remains a pilgrimage site for music fans worldwide. There, she befriends Gayle (Angel Laketa Moore), a security guard, and they are together at the mansion when a mysterious black cloud blankets the world.

Armed with this narrative context, Wolfe curated a collection of Elvis covers rather than using original recordings by the King of Rock 'n' Roll. "It's in keeping with the tone of the show; we're watching a world that seems familiar but really isn't," he explained to Variety. Given the vast array of Elvis interpretations available, Wolfe noted, "We split them into two camps. One was re-imagining—songs that were covers but sounded completely different than the original versions—and then ones that were faithful to the original versions and would be recognizable." Because Elvis did not write his own songs, securing licenses for the music proved relatively straightforward. Beyond Elvis, Wolfe also explored the stories behind covers of Phil Collins and Counting Crows tracks that appear throughout the season. Music industry experts often note that cover songs can serve as powerful narrative devices, bridging familiar emotions with unfamiliar contexts—a technique Wolfe and his team leveraged extensively here.

For "Unchained Melody," Wolfe turned to a version by She & Him featuring The Chapin Sisters. Zooey Deschanel recorded this rendition with her band, and Wolfe explained, "We have a long history with Zooey because we did 'New Girl.' We love this song, and this song existed in one of those playlists, and our editor grabbed it for this scene." Regarding the song's numerous covers, he added, "We pick ones that we respond to or resonate with, or ones that we think have a dramatic type of color that would work in the show. This was just a version that we liked a lot." For the Phil Collins classic "Another Day in Paradise," Wolfe had previously used a different version by Joyner in season one, which he described as "wasn't as hyper-dramatic." Fogelman tipped Wolfe off early about this needle drop. "We went out to people to see who might be up for the task of creating an ultra-dark version of this song. Soundwall was one of the people we reached out to. We had not been familiar with John Coggins, but he has a studio in Thousand Oaks. A friend introduced us to him, and he sent in this version. We thought it was so dramatic that it might get shot down for that reason, but Dan Fogelman loved it, and it worked great against the picture."

In Episode 4, Wolfe featured Ingrid Michaelson's cover of "Can't Help Falling in Love." After the episode aired, he shared, "We got a nice note from her. She had forgotten that she had recorded this song, and this reminded her of it. She was really pleased with the use and that it got exploited again." Wolfe noted the cover was over a decade old, but when he synced it to the visuals, he immediately recognized it as a "keeper." For "Mr. Jones," Wolfe sought to reprise the Counting Crows song from the episode's opening. "We reached out to friends of ours or people that we work with or know, and Freedom Fry is a husband and wife musical team based here in L.A.," he said. "We went to them and said, 'Would you be interested in doing this?' And they're always game to do something, and they turned this version in, and everyone loved it as soon as they heard it. The editors, Dan Fogelman, and the other producers loved it, and it went right onto the end of episode five." He contrasted this with earlier choices, noting, "It's the opposite to the hyper-dramatic covers that we've been talking about. It's small, intimate, and it's acoustic, with just voice and guitar."

Regarding "The Final Countdown," Wolfe revealed a more complex licensing process. "The writer of the song, Joey Tempest, approved the publishing, but contingent upon having approval of what version we used. We submitted a different version of the song, which he denied because he wasn't happy with the vocal performance, so this is another one we went to Soundwall with, and they came back, and then we submitted it to Joey again, and he approved it. He just had one note, and it was a word in the lyrics to one of the verses. John had used the wrong word, so we just had to switch that, and that was it." This meticulous attention to detail reflects the broader creative approach behind the show's soundtrack, where every musical choice is designed to deepen the viewer's emotional connection to a world teetering on the edge of collapse.