Paul Oakenfold Sings Brittany Murphy’s Praises

Now that Brittany Murphy is finally laid to rest, one of her musical collaborators, Paul Oakenfold, reflects on her lost talent. The DJ mastermind spoke with People magazine about working with the aspiring singer and how much potential she had to seriously make it in the music biz.

From the beginning, Oakenfold was impressed with Murphy’s sultry voice and knew she was a perfect fit for the electro track “Faster Kill Pussycat”:

“I demoed three other girls on that song,” Oakenfold says, “and some of the girls were pretty big singers – and Brittany blew them away.”  “She wanted to try… this smoky blues sound with electronic rhythms. She wanted to sound more traditional originally but I told her we should go more edgy. She was really excited by that and it’s just a shame it never got as far as people thought it could. It’s just a shame that the world is not going to hear more songs of Brittany Murphy.”

Hey, there’s still a chance. Murphy’s unfinished debut album certainly has enough buzz around it to provide some sort of release, whether a complete album or just downloadable singles, and the chances are even greater if album producers Timbaland and Max Martin (as well as Murphy’s family) get behind the idea of a posthumous release. There is still a possibility Murphy could become the respected musician she always wanted to be, although Oakenfold surprises us by saying Brittany wasn’t even sure she wanted her name attached to “Pussycat” at first, as she had been used to providing anonymous vocals on tracks. Says Paul:

“I said to her, ‘Why hide behind something? You have a really great vocal. People are going to be shocked and pleasantly happy with what they’re going to hear. You are not one of these actresses who are trying to sing and not doing a good job of it.'”

Which leaves us wondering—just which songs did Brittany sing but never get credit for? And will any producers step forward in the next few weeks to reveal Murphy’s unidentified work? We’ll have to wait to find out, but for now, there’s tons of clips of Brittany’s singing popping up all over the net, including this brief appearance at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards. Even while performing just a few lines, she knew how to belt it out.