Catherine O’Hara’s Best Musical Moments

Could there be a better tribute to O’Hara’s genius than a montage in her honor at the Westminster Dog Show? Shown on the Jumbotron at Madison Square Garden just before the terrier group was announced, the shout-out is a loving tribute to Best in Show’s indelible Cookie Fleck. The most endearing character in the movie by a mile, Cookie captivates (as always) with an ode to her beloved Winky. The song (not to be confused with the Flecks’ other banger, “Terrier Style”) hits all the right notes of dog adulation, even when Cookie doesn’t.

There was so much to love about Moira Rose’s arc on Schitt’s Creek, but one of the best bits was her slow takeover of the Jazzagirls, the town’s a cappella singing group, or as she described it, “a tiny oasis in the echoing canyon I now call my social life.” While Moira somehow cajoled the group to perform at her Christmas party, her daughter’s graduation, her son’s wedding, and utilize her husband’s baritone, her best performance is still her audition, where she didn’t do much prep beyond securing a killer outfit and a percussion egg. 

O’Hara sang so often on SCTV it’s hard to pick a favorite. But perhaps her most beloved character was the glittery, self-absorbed, not-so-great singer Lola Heatherton, a woman who really tried to care, even to the depth of delusion. O’Hara had no problem rocking a Christmas number, so it’s not a surprise she gave Lola Heatherton a holiday special, although this one gets hijacked pretty quickly into some bleak lonely-hearts territory, as she sings by a crackling fire, “I don’t even know what year it is, I just know I’m still alone.”

Another Christmas performance, this song in Tim Burton’s gothic classic is something altogether different — not played for laughs, just heart (and heartbreak). In a 2023 interview, O’Hara described it as “the combination of beautiful art, wonderful songs. And then, you know, the sort of the common theme… of the outsider character who just wants to be appreciated and loved.” Written by Danny Elfman and performed in a sensitive high soprano, “Sally’s Song” is the movie’s emotional showstopper. Thirty years later, O’Hara nailed it again at the Hollywood Bowl.

As “the Lunts of Blaine,” Ron and Sheila Albertson don’t have to audition for Blaine, Missouri’s sesquicentennial celebration musical extravaganza, but these guys are pros. O’Hara’s most frequent screen partner may have been Eugene Levy (don’t worry, he’s there), but here she goes next-level with Fred Willard in the first of her four film collaborations with director Christopher Guest. Complete with a pre-performance psych-up, witty banter (watch her lips move while Willard does his dialogue), dance moves and coordinating track suits, the Albertsons (travel agents who have never left Missouri) transport us all to a new, foreign world. 

Title of the movie aside, this Christopher Guest joint goes lighter on the hilarity and stronger on the emotion, no more so than each time O’Hara and Levy’s folk duo Mitch & Mickey perform this song.  A gimmicky confection capitalizing on their “sweetheart” status, the titular kiss is first played for a joke (“the phenomenon of that kiss, it can’t be overstated. It was a superb moment in the history of folk music and maybe… maybe a great moment in the history of humans”), but in the voice of O’Hara, by the time we see her perform one final time, it becomes a truly moving moment, demonstrating the bittersweet power of young love and lost chances. Nominated for an Oscar and won a Grammy.

Almost 20 years before A Mighty Wind, John Candy and Eugene Levy made this parody of The Last Waltz featuring their SCTV characters, the Schmeges Brothers. The Last Polka, which aired in 1985 on HBO (and seemingly, never again until the creation of the internet) has many offbeat moments that make it worth a watch, but the true draw is the mesmerizing Lemon Sisters (Robin Duke, O’Hara, and her real-life big sister, acclaimed musician Mary Margaret O’Hara), a trio as dynamic onstage as they are at wrecking Schmeges’ marriages. 

Not since Albert Finney walked down a driveway with a tommy gun has “Danny Boy” been deployed so perfectly onscreen.  Here’s how to save your husband from having a breakdown while giving a eulogy for a person he barely knows. Made extra funny when they released the outtake. No notes.

Since O’Hara’s passing last week, this 2013 clip of Mary Margaret singing at a Toronto club with Catherine on backup has made the rounds. A joyous performance. Here’s to a belief in the song’s sentiment.