The new YA Netflix series 13 Reasons Why has an interesting creative team, to say the least. It's based on the novel by the same name by Jay Asher. The creator and showrunner is Tony award and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright and lyricist Brian Yorkey, who musical theatre fans know from Next To Normal and If/Then. The show is also executive produced by Selena Gomez. In fact, the new Selena Gomez cover of "Only You" on 13 Reasons Why plays in the season finale. She leaves her mark on the show in a meaningful way.
The song is originally by Yazoo, the duo formed between Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode and Alison Moyet. It has also been covered by Enrique Iglesias and Kylie Minogue — featuring James Corden, of all people. It's a really fantastic '80s pop song that you've almost certainly heard before. Considering that Hannah uses cassette tapes to communicate in 13 Reasons Why, it's appropriate that the soundtrack includes some retro favorites.
As I mentioned before, you can hear the song towards the end of the final episode, just after (spoiler alert) Clay, played by Dylan Mynette, delivers the tapes to Mr. Porter. The 13 Reasons Why soundtrack is already available to stream on Spotify, iTunes, and Amazon, but Gomez debuted a preview of the cover on Twitter before the premiere. Check it out:
With lyrics like "Listen to the words that you say/ it's getting harder to stay," you can see why Gomez chose this song for 13 Reasons Why and specifically for these misunderstood characters. There's also an acoustic cover of her song "Kill 'Em With Kindness" on the soundtrack. It's a good way to end the season, and shows how much Gomez cares about telling this story.
