Robert Ellis Orrall flips ‘Freakier Friday’ inside out with his own ‘Ultimate’ version

Acclaimed singer-songwriter reboots his 2003 single written for Lindsay Lohan to coincide with the ‘Freakquel’ OUT NOW!

NOW PLAYING: Listen to ‘Ultimate’ on Spotify

Robert Ellis Orrall performs live August 22 at The Cut in Gloucester and September 13 at Two To Lou music festival in Sandown, New Hampshire

New album ‘Wrong Thing’ set for release on Friday, September 12

Listen to live album ‘The Bear Is The Mountain’  x  Watch ‘Glad All Over’ on YouTube

BOSTON, Mass. [August 8, 2025] – In the closing credits to the 2003 film Freaky Friday, Lindsay Lohan jumps up on stage at a party and bangs out a rousing rendition of “Ultimate,” a pop-rock comet written by Robert Ellis Orrall and Jeff Coplan that has, in the more than two decades since, become a staple of Disney radio. With the enduring franchise getting a reboot this summer as Freakier Friday – dubbed a “freakquel” by the House of Mouse – “Ultimate” is also getting a new shine, with the song performed for Nisha Ganatra’s upcoming fantasy comedy by Canadian indie buzz band The Beaches. 

And now Orrall is getting in on the action, as well. 

The acclaimed singer-songwriter is releasing his version of “Ultimate,” newly recorded with his reunited band from Orrall’s early-’80s RCA Records heyday, on the day of Freakier Friday’s release, on Friday, August 8 via his own Fixation Records. Orrall’s “Ultimate” arrives a week after The Beaches’ version does, as the film’s soundtrack hits a week ahead of the theatrical release, with Lohan starring alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, who both return from the early-aughts film.  

For Orrall, the Massachusetts native and resident and longtime Nashville-based songwriter and producer, showing off “Ultimate” with his band – Orrall on lead vocals and keyboards; Kook Lawry on guitar and vocals; Don Walden on bass and vocals; and David Stefanelli on drums, with additional guitar by Gary Burnette – was simply too good to resist. 

“In March of this year Disney called and asked if we’d tailor some of the lyrics to fit the new movie Freakier Friday and of course that was a no-brainer!” Orrall says. “On the soundtrack, ‘Ultimate’ is performed by The Beaches – and I love their version. But we also thought, why don’t we release our own? So Kook, Don, David, and I recorded this version during rehearsals for our upcoming shows.” 

Those shows include appearing at The Cut in Gloucester on August 22, and headlining the Two To Lou Music Festival in Sandown, New Hampshire, on September 13. The festival gig arrives the day after Orrall and his band release a new album of originals, Wrong Thing, to follow up June’s boisterous live album The Bear Is The Mountain.      

Between “Ultimate,” the live album, and the forthcoming Wrong Thing, Orrall is enjoying a reboot of his own. The Bear Is The Mountain showcases his band’s electric early-’80s output, before he relocated to Nashville to become a prolific songwriter, producer, and in-demand collaborator, with five Number 1 songs to his credit across an eclectic and expansive 350-track catalog. 

This new chapter started with 2022 collaborative record 467 Surf & Gun Club and last year’s studio album The War Between Us (recorded in 1986 at Downtown Recorders), continues with the summer live shows, and eventually leads to September’s Wrong Thing album, the quartet’s first new all-original music in nearly four decades. For the new record, they enlisted Grammy-winning engineer Steve Marcantono, who worked on the mixes for the band’s debut album, Fixation.

The time in between has given Orrall a nice perspective. 

 “Well, it’s been 40 years so we definitely know how lucky we are,” Orrall says. “Rehearsals are amazing. We’re rocking the songs we rocked when we were in our 20s, and we’ve all grown and learned so much since then; it’s easier -- but we’re definitely rocking them harder! Back then it was ‘always have fun!’ – give the people everything we’ve got. It’s still fun, though maybe there’s a little less of an after party these days!”

After leaving Boston, the songwriter, painter, music producer, and owner of esteemed indie label Infinity Cat Recordings and its Visitor’s Center and Gallery would go on to write and produce tracks with Reba McEntire, Shenandoah, and Clay Walker; earn placements in TV and movies in addition to Freaky Friday – like The Bourne Identity and Hannah Montana – and perhaps most notably, co-produce Taylor Swift’s 10x-platinum 2006 debut album and its follow-up EP, Beautiful Eyes, helping launch her career.  

The members of the Robert Ellis Orrall band did not stay idle either, lending their talents to artists like Peter Wolf of J. Geils Band, Boston’s Barry Goudreau and Brad Delp, Brian Maes, Nick Lowe, and several others. Orrall now splits his time between his residence on the North Shore of Massachusetts and Florida, where when he’s not making music with his collaborators, he spends his time painting.

Interestingly enough, Orrall had no idea “Ultimate” would become so iconic in the Disney pop-rock pantheon. He and Coplan originally penned the track nearly 25 years ago for the first Robert Ellis Orrall and Monkey Bowl album. Monkey Bowl was a fake band he established for Infinity Cat Recordings, the label that he would launch with his sons, JEFF The Brotherhood’s Jake and Jamin. 

The label would go on to release music from Be Your Own Pet, Diarrhea Planet, Daddy Issues, and several others, but “Ultimate” would be passed along to Disney for Lohan to sing in Freaky Friday, the adaptation of the original 1976 film starring Jodie Foster, based on Mary Rodgers’ 1972 novel. There’s also a 1995 made-for-TV version, but that one didn’t really make a mark.  

But Lohan’s version certainly did, and the 2003 version of “Ultimate” would go on to rack up more than 30 million plays on Spotify and several million video views on YouTube. 

“It was meant to be funny – ‘I’ve been looking for someone like you my whole life, and you are the ultimate you!’, as the lyrics go,” Orrall says. “But when my co-writer Jeff Coplan pitched it to Disney, they loved it for this new movie they were making.” 

More than two decades later, “Ultimate,” and all its various versions endures – just like the film franchise that carries it.  

Robert Ellis Orrall features:

Robert Ellis Orrall: Keyboards and vocals

Kook Lawry: Guitars

Don Walden: Bass

David Stefanelli: Drums and percussion

Gary Burnette: Additional Guitar

**

‘Ultimate’ artwork:

‘Ultimate’ credits:

Written by Robert Ellis Orrall and Jeff Coplan

Performed by David Stefanelli, Don Walden, Kook Lawry, Gary Burnette, and Robert Ellis Orrall

Released on Fixation Records

‘Ultimate’ promo card:

Robert Ellis Orrall short bio:

When RCA Records signed Robert Ellis Orrall in 1980 he had his dream band: Kook Lawry on guitar, Don Walden on bass and David Stefanelli on the drums. Forty-four years later they are back on the road and in the studio. Part of a New Wave of Boston artists that included The Stompers, Jon Butcher Axis, Til Tuesday and The Neighborhoods, REO rocked legendary venues like The Rat, The Paradise and The Orpheum Theater.

The band’s critically acclaimed albums, Fixation, Contain Yourself, and Special Pain were recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales with producer Roger Bechirian (Elvis Costello, Squeeze), and supported with tours opening for U2, The Kinks, Psychedelic Furs and countless others. And their Top 40 smash hit with Carlene Carter “I Couldn’t Say No” still stands as an ‘80s classic.

When Robert moved to Nashville to write and produce (Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire, Lindsay Lohan), Kook, Don and David lent their talents to artists like Peter Wolf (J. Geils Band), Barry Goudreau & Brad Delp (Boston), Carlene Carter, Brian Maes, Nick Lowe, and many more.

Robert Ellis Orrall has had over 350 songs (and five #1 songs) cut around the world and soundtracked in TV and movies like The Bourne Identity, Hannah Montana, and Freaky Friday. He produced tracks for Love and Theft, Cake Bake Betty and Taylor Swift’s 10x-platinum debut album and follow-up EP.

The band regrouped to reminisce, tour, and record 467 Surf And Gun Club, an album John Hiatt called “absolutely joyful”; Michael McDonald called “relevant and timeless”; and wrote American Songwriter: “The melodies, counter melodies, and killer performances constitute a unique blend of ‘60s-pop-meets-modern-indie songwriting.”

The band is touring from now to forever, playing songs from all of their albums and albums to come. The old cliche “Let’s get the band back together” has come to life with these four best friends playing their best music.

Recent praise for Robert Ellis Orrall:

“Robert Ellis Orrall is a composer who always says something we need to hear. In that way he remains relevant and timeless. His latest offering is no less.”  _Michael McDonald

“Very sophisticated and relentlessly appealing sunny SoCal folk pop a la Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, the guys who invented it. Fully realized. Absolutely joyful.”  _John Hiatt

“A busy season of live performances.” _WGBH’s The Culture Show

“A melodic flashback” _The Whole Kameese

“Robert Ellis Orrall is emblematic of the irreverent, eccentric spirit that has helped forge Nashville’s contemporary independent music scene.” _Nashville Scene

“[467 Surf and Gun Club] is a delightful and touching listen. Musically, the melodies, counter melodies, and killer performances – provided by the same band members Orrall recorded and played with back in the ‘80s – constitute a unique blend of  ‘60s-pop-meets-modern-indie-meets-solid-country-songwriting.” _American Songwriter 

“The music throughout the record has the same vibe as Andrew Gold, Brian Wilson or latter career Elvis Costello, confident, comfortable and relaxed with nothing to prove and ultimately satisfying from start to finish. The first instinct on the closing notes of the (final) track is to immediately go back to the beginning and listen to the album all over again.” _Glide Magazine

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