Friday, January 1, 2010

Reviewing the Oscar winners - Best Original Song

Apparently I have masochistic tendencies because I've decided to listen to, and review, the winners of the Best Original Song Oscar over the years.  I don't know what possessed me to do this.  I'm sure as hell not going to pay to download the songs, and I don't download illegally because I'm a nice boy, so I'm going to rely on the song being on YouTube.  Hey, I might even provide a link.  How's that for service?

Note:  I usually hate every nominee in this category for each year.  Also, even if a song is by Irving Berlin or someone else one is meant to like, if I think it's bad then I'm going to say so.


1934 - "The Continental" (from The Gay Divorcee)
The only version of this I could find was by Maureen McGovern.  Wikipedia tells me she did the song from The Towering Inferno which means I'm going to have to listen to her sing again later.  Sigh.  This song is actually quite catchy but I don't know if the original is as good.  Anyone know?  I haven't seen the film, obviously, but if this is a faithful cover then one can say that the Best Original Song category was off to a good start.



1935 - "Lullaby of Broadway" (from Gold Diggers of 1935)
Wow, another catchy song.  Much better than what was winning awards in the 1990s (the last few years haven't been so bad - at least we're not assaulted with Disney ballads by Phil Collins these days).  The video on YouTube is what I'm assuming is the first seven minutes of the film.  I had no idea that the subliminal face from The Exorcist was already a big star in the 1930s.



1936 - "The Way You Look Tonight" (from Swing Time)
Hey, I know this song!  Great stuff.  It's always nice to see some winners go on to be classic songs.  How many songs can you say that about since the early 1980s?  I couldn't find the song from the film, so we'll have to make do with this performance by Leslie 'Hutch' Hutchinson.  It's from 1936 so at least it's from the same year as the film.



1937 - "Sweet Leilani" (from Waikiki Wedding)
Well.  Hmm.  I'm not a big fan of Hawaiian music so you'll forgive me for not being a big fan of this song.  When I looked for it on YouTube I found quite a few covers of it, including one from Elvis Presley, so I guess a lot of people like it more than I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChuzuFEtT8Y (no embedding available)

1938 - "Thanks for the Memory"(from The Big Broadcast of 1938)
I think the word I'm looking for is 'meh'.  This is what I expected every Oscar-winning song around this time to sound like.  Maybe you need to be a Bob Hope fan.  I've never been a Bob Hope fan.  Good grief.



1939 - "Over the Rainbow" (from The Wizard of Oz)
Now this is a friggin' classic.  Nothing else needs to be said.



1940 - "When You Wish Upon a Star" (from Pinocchio)
Another classic, but it never really did anything for me.  I was never a big fan of the film to be honest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Us3PfJfkY (no embedding available)

1941 - "The Last Time I Saw Paris" (from Lady Be Good)
Never heard of the film, never heard of the song.  I couldn't find a clip from the film so you will have to make do with Noel Coward's recording of it.  The goodwill the Best Original Song category had early on is fading fast.  Quick, we need another "Over the Rainbow"!



1942 - "White Christmas" (from Holiday Inn)
I know this song!  I had to write a short story for English in high school back in... gee, I guess it was 1993.  I needed to pad it out with some dialogue so I had two of the characters argue about which film this song was originally from.  Our hero said it was Holiday Inn and used the fact that it won an Oscar for Best Original Song as proof, while his nemesis insisted it was from White Christmas.

What, you need me to say something about the song?  Give me a break.



1943 - "You'll Never Know" (from Hello, Frisco, Hello)
Anyone else heard of this film?  I thought I'd heard of everything that won an Oscar.  Oh no, I'm learning things!  This sounds like a nice enough song but seems typical of the songs from the period.  I couldn't find a clip from the film - I've been lead to believe that it's Alice Faye's signature song - so you'll have to make do with this recording of Faye over some footage of various 20th Century Fox films.



1944 - "Swinging on a Star" (from Going My Way)
Trivia note - Going My Way was the first Best Picture winner to also win for Best Original Song.  I've never seen the film and, after hearing this song, I'm not in a hurry to make up for it.  Something tells me that when I die and go to hell, this song will be on repeat for the rest of eternity.



1945 - "It Might As Well Be Spring" (from State Fair)
This song by Rodgers & Hammerstein is a real snoozer. Good grief. It's just occured to me that I haven't seen any musicals from the 40s (as far as I know - maybe I'm forgetting some). I don't want to anymore.



1946 - "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe" (from The Harvey Girls)
I couldn't find a clip from the film so here's a performance by its star Judy Garland from one of her albums. I don't know what to think about this. It's not as bad as some of the earlier songs - certainly the best of the 40s thus far.



1947 - "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" (from Song of the South)
This was easily the catchiest song to win Best Original Song at that point in time. As I said in my previous post, it's always good when one of the winners goes on to become a classic. It seems like it doesn't happen nearly enough though.

Trivia note: when I was a young lad, maybe four or five, my mum (or Santa - in hindsight I'm sure it was my mum) got me a book for Christmas, one of those books where you play the tape and it reads it out for you and then chimes when it's time to turn the page. That book was "The Tar Baby" with Br'er Rabbit and co. I found it funny. I had never seen Song of the South (and still haven't) and didn't have a clue who Uncle Remus was, but I assume the pictures in the book were from the "Tar Baby" part of the film.



1948 - "Buttons and Bows" (from The Paleface)
Am I bad for not having heard of so many of these films? A quick look tells me that this was a Bob Hope film. I don't think I've ever seen a Bob Hope film (unless you count The Muppet Movie and Spies Like Us).

Watching the video below, I wasn't terribly keen on the song. But wait - it's performed again with Roy Rodgers and Jane Russell (according to the little blurb on YouTube anyway)! This version is much better, but it's still a pretty average song. Maybe I'm being too harsh, maybe it's wonderful. Maybe all of the songs so far have been wonderful, but I suspect not.



1949 - "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (from Neptune's Daughter)
Yet another film I haven't heard of. It stars Esther Williams - the only film of her's I've seen is Million Dollar Mermaid - and Red Skelton, who I keep getting confused with Redd Foxx (I'd watch that movie!). I think I've heard this song before. It's pleasant enough, and somewhat catchy.



1950 - "Mona Lisa" (from Captain Carey, USA)
Ah, Captain Carey, USA - what a classic. No, I haven't heard of this one either. I have heard of the song though, and it's a wonderful tune at that.

I can't find a clip of the song from the film, so here's a performance by Nat King Cole with some completely unrelated clips.



1951 - "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (from Here Comes the Groom)
I don't know if I've heard this song before. The title sounds familiar but the song doesn't really... oh well. It seems that as we leave the 1940s the songs get better. At least you can tap your foot to this one, something that can't be said for that song from State Fair (see, I've already forgotten what it's called).



1952 - "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin')" (from High Noon)
Not only do I know the song, I actually know the film! I haven't been able to say that much so far. This is played all over the film, including the opening credits, and it's a decent tune so I'm fine with this winning. I can't think of High Noon without thinking of this song.



1953 - "Secret Love" (from Calamity Jane)
I knew that Calamity Jane had an Oscar-winning song but never knew it was this one. I just figured it was a song that, you know, I'd heard of. This one is a real clunker. What is it about these really dull songs that made the Academy think that it was worthy of a nomination, let alone a win? I guess it was just the era.



1954 - "Three Coins in the Fountain" (from Three Coins in the Fountain)
Heard of the film, never heard the song. A pleasant, dull song. Maybe that was the theme in the 1950s.

I couldn't find a clip from the film so here's Dean Martin singing it at the Oscars that year.



1955 - "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" (from Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing)
Ah yes. This is a lovely song, mainly because it gives me an opportunity to sing the title at a much higher volume than is appropriate. Unlike most of the winning songs, this one reaches out and grabs you in an inappropriate place with a clenched fist, refusing to let you go until it's done.



1956 - "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Será, Será)" (from The Man Who Knew Too Much)
I didn't realise that this was written for the film - it's such a classic that I just assumed it was already a hit when it was included in the film. Who doesn't like this song?

Trivia note: this was one of only five Hitchcock films to win an Oscar. The others were Rebecca, Suspicion, Spellbound and To Catch a Thief.



1957 - "All the Way" (from The Joker is Wild)
I'm not familiar with this film either. I know the song though - who doesn't? Sinatra could sing that song from State Fair and make it sound great.

The only clip from the film I could find was the last few minutes with the song playing - I don't know if that's the only spot it's in, and that clip has a lot of dialogue, so I thought I'd just go with Sinatra singing it live here.



1958 - "Gigi" (from Gigi)
I saw this years ago when I was trying to watch as many Best Picture winners as I could. My God, what a boring film. I just didn't get the appeal at all. I'll have to watch it again some time, I know, but it won't be any time soon.

I can't find the song from the film so here's Harry Secombe singing it. Sorry, it's the best I could do. I don't know how faithful it is but it doesn't inspire me at all.



1959 - "High Hopes" (from A Hole in the Head)
Yes, I know this song. You do too. Once you hear it you never want to hear it again, but you will, at moments you least expect it, and it will torment you for the rest of your days. Or maybe that's just me.

I can't find the song from the film so here's Bob from Sesame Street performing it. Of course.



1960 - "Never on Sunday" (from Never on Sunday)
Another one I know. This isn't bad. At least it's different to every other song that wins, probably because it's in Greek. I've never heard it in Greek actually, just in English.



1961 - "Moon River" (from Breakfast at Tiffany's)
This is a nice song, and that's purely because it was performed by Audrey Hepburn. This would have won in any year it was nominated - yes, even during the Alan Menken Disney years in the 90s.



1962 - "Days of Wine and Roses" (from Days of Wine and Roses)
I haven't seen the film, but considering this was from the 60s I'm willing to guess that this was played during the opening titles. It sounds like a 60s opening titles kind of song. It's pleasant enough. Nothing special.

I can't find a clip from the film, so you will have to make do with Andy Williams' performance of it.



1963 - "Call Me Irresponsible" (from Papa's Delicate Condition)
Wait, is this a real film? I've never heard of it. I shall burn my DVD collection in disgrace.

I think I know this song. Sounds sort of familiar, but maybe it just sounds like many of the other songs from the same time. I can't find the song from the film so here's Frank Sinatra singing it.



1964 - "Chim Chim Cher-ee" (from Mary Poppins)
You will be surprised to note that I've never watched Mary Poppins the whole way through. I've tried a few times but just can't get into the damn thing. Maybe one day.

I always found this song to be a little creepy. I don't know why. It's another example of a winning song becoming a classic, but that may be more because of the film than the quality of the actual song.



1965 - "The Shadow of Your Smile" (from The Sandpiper)
I can't find a clip from the film so we'll have to go with Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mercer's performance below. Feel free to let me know if this is nothing like the original. Anyway:

Ooh, we're really getting into the 60s here. You know, when almost any song sung by a woman could have been a Bond theme. I quite like this.



1966 - "Born Free" (from Born Free)
Boooorn Freeeeeeeeee... I think that this was one of the first films I'd ever heard of and, by extension, the song was one of the first I heard. I don't know why. Maybe it was on TV at the time. I've never seen the whole thing. Great song though.



1967 - "Talk to the Animals" (from Doctor Dolittle)
Rex Harrison won an Oscar for one of my all-time favourite musicals. However, it was for My Fair Lady, not Doctor Dolittle. Dolittle did receive nine nominations, including Best Picture, but it's not considered one of the Academy's finest choices. I haven't seen the film - I don't really have any interest in it - but if I'm ever going to watch all of the Best Picture nominees then I will have to one day, I guess.

This is an OK song. It's fun. It does its job. Yeah.



1968 - "The Windmills of Your Mind" (from The Thomas Crown Affair)
This song is by Alan & Marilyn Bergman and Michel Legrand. This was the first of the Bergman's sixteen nominations and three wins. They were all over the place in the 1970s (Legrand received thirteen nominations and two wins, but most of his were for one of the Score categories). Beware the hit machines.

This is interesting. It's very much a sixties song. Noel Harrison, the son of Rex Harrison, reminds me of someone who is singing at a karaoke night but realizes that the song is faster than he realized. That said, I've heard worse winning songs, and it's mercifully short.



1969 - "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
You know this song. It's good. You would never hear a song like this in a film like this ever again. Sign of the times I guess. This is such a great film.



1970 - "For All We Know" (from Lovers and Other Strangers)
Yay! We've hit the seventies! I'm not familiar with this film but I see that Richard Castellano received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for it. That's Clemenza from The Godfather! I had no idea he was an Oscar nominee. Sweet. I'm really learning a lot doing this thing. The film had a great cast so I might have to check it out some time.

I think I've heard this song before. Sounds familiar. Nice and acousticy. It was a big hit for The Carpenters so maybe that's the version I know.



1971 - "Theme from Shaft" (from Shaft)
YES. Once every twenty or thirty years the Academy likes to shake things up a bit, go against the status quo and all that. This was one of those times. It's obviously nothing like any of the previous winning songs (there is no way in hell that I'm going to do this thing for every nominated song, but I doubt any of the previous nominees sounded like this). For me, this will go down as one of the Academy's greatest moments.



1972 - "The Morning After" (from The Poseidon Adventure)
OK, so the Academy was only cool for one year. Back to the same old-same old with this song, performed by Maureen McGovern. What is it with these guys handing out awards to these uninspired songs year after year? The Oscars seem to know as much about music as the Grammys (note: I honestly don't know who I'm insulting here). Great movie though.



1973 - "The Way We Were" (from The Way We Were)
Alan & Marilyn Bergman are back, this time with Marvin Hamlisch (who won three Oscars that year, two for The Way We Were and one for The Sting). I'm not going to knock this song. I dig it. Maybe it's just Barbra Streisand, I don't know.

Not sure if this is the version from the film or not, but you get the general gist of it.



1974 - "We May Never Love Like This Again" (from The Towering Inferno)
Urgh. Shoot me. That's all I can say.



1975 - "I'm Easy" (from Nashville)
I keep meaning to watch Nashville but I never get around to it. Maybe one day. To be honest, I'm not that big a fan of Robert Altman so I'm not really in a hurry (although one of the first films I remember seeing was Popeye).

But watching the clip below... wow. I must see this movie. I'd put I'm Easy in the top 5 winning songs so far. I loved it, but maybe that's because I grew up on sixties and seventies country.



1976 - "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star is Born)" (from A Star is Born)
Trivia note: I haven't seen any version of A Star is Born. I almost watched the Judy Garland/James Mason version on a flight to London but I didn't think my jet-lagged brain could have coped.

Barbra Streisand wrote this with Paul Williams. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Babs was the first person to win in an acting category and another non-acting category. I think. I'm probably forgetting someone but I'm quite sure. In any case, this is a surprisingly nice song. Maybe I'm a Streisand fan and I don't know it.



1977 - "You Light Up My Life" (from You Light Up My Life)
Hey, I know this song. One of those songs most people wouldn't know was from a film. It's... oh, fine, it's a good song. Shut it. The clip below features a very poor lip-synch job by Frenchy from Grease.

Interesting note - films that win for Best Original Song rarely get more than a couple of other nominations. This is a classic example.



1978 - "Last Dance" (from Thank God It's Friday)
I read once that Thank God It's Friday was the worst film to ever win an Oscar. I haven't seen it but I'm guessing it's up for debate. Surely there have been some bigger stinkers to win something... right?

So it looked like Oscar managed to sneak in a disco song before it was too late. Methinks they could have done better. This was the year after Saturday Night Fever, after all, but maybe there were no original songs on the soundtrack. Yes, that must be it.



1979 - "It Goes Like It Goes" (from Norma Rae)
First of all, it has to be said: this beat The Rainbow Connection from The Muppet Movie, so it must be damn near perfect.

But it's not. Of course it's not. It's not awful - it's a nice little ditty, but certainly no Rainbow Connection. No sir.



1980 - "Fame" (from Fame)
This is the sort of song the Academy should be honouring with this category - a song that truly represents the movie and stuff. Yeah. Everyone knows this song so no need for me to carry on about it.

Note: I haven't seen the film so I don't know if this is from that or from the TV series (which was also called Fame). Just in case you're worried about such things.



1981 - "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" (from Arthur)
OK, so the eighties is when the Academy figured it out. It only took them forty-six years, so we'll cut them some slack. In all fairness, though, they were probably not to know that some of the songs were going to go on to be classics, but surely they could still spot a quality tune when they heard one... right? Right?

I can't find a clip from the film so here's Christopher Cross performing it live somewhere. Local note for Australian readers: Peter Allen co-wrote the song. Probably why it's so good (but having Cross, Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager probably helped - it'd be scary if you got a dodgy song with that lot writing it).



1982 - "Up Where We Belong" (from An Officer and a Gentleman)
Third song of the eighties, third classic. Doing well so far.

No clip from the film, so here's the song with a montage of animal pictures. Of course.



1983 - "Flashdance... What a Feeling" (from Flashdance)
Four in a row! What was it about the eighties that made the Academy get it right? Or is just that all of these songs are awful, well-suited to the Academy and I'm wrong for liking them? Hmm, something to think about.

I never knew that Maniac was also nominated from the same film. Interesting.



1984 - "I Just Called to Say I Love You" (from The Woman in Red)
And another classic. I really hate this song though. Stevie Wonder is a bit of a genius, but even a genius has a bad day. And he won an Oscar for it, so... yeah. A good example of a classic song being from a film most people haven't heard of.



1985 - "Say You, Say Me" (from White Knights)
I never saw this as a kid, which is strange considering that for a while I thought it was a martial arts film. But hey, this is another song which was a huge hit at the time. Well done, Mr Academy People! I really should listen to more Lionel Ritchie stuff.



1986 - "Take My Breath Away" (from Top Gun)
This is quite a streak the Academy was having. It's become obvious that they were just giving the Oscar to whatever was the biggest hit that year, but that's OK. Then again, maybe they were doing that every year and I just hadn't heard of a lot of the songs. That sure wasn't the case in the nineties though.

This song goes on a bit. I was never much of a fan to be honest.



1987 - "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" (from Dirty Dancing)
I said it once and I'll say it again - this is pretty much the perfect pop song. When I said that someone then piped up that it wasn't really a pop song. Fine then. But for the sake of argument we'll say it is.

The best version of the song from the film had embedding disabled. Here it is anyway. Twelve million views - woah. Hey look, it's Lorelei's mum from Gilmore Girls!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmILPAcRQo

1988 - "Let the River Run" (from Working Girl)
Back to normal then. I don't remember this being a big hit, but I was only twelve at the time so maybe I'm wrong. I don't get the appeal with this song. Maybe they just wanted to give Working Girl something.



1989 - "Under the Sea" (from The Little Mermaid)
And so it was that the Alan Menken era began. Well, his first nomination was for Little Shop of Horrors but this was his first of many wins (eight from eighteen nominations). The Academy even split the Original Score categories into Drama and Comedy/Musical for a couple of years because Disney had a stranglehold on them.

Still, some of them were good songs, and some of them were great. This is one of the great ones. It even had a Simpsons parody (although I preferred See My Vest ("made from real gorilla chest!").



1990 - "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" (from Dick Tracy)
A sign that we're truly out of the eighties - the biggest song didn't win. Jon Bon Jovi received an Oscar nomination for his solo outing, Blaze of Glory from Young Guns II, and it was a huge hit, but Stephen Sondheim won instead for this one. It's an OK song. Anyone outside of Madonna fans remember it? Exactly. I guess they wanted to give Sondheim an Oscar.

This clip is from the Oscars that year. It's a great performance.



1991 - "Beauty and the Beast" (from Beauty and the Beast)
I love this film and this is, of course, a great song, but I really wish Be Our Guest had won instead. Oh well.

More proof that the Academy and well-and-truly ditched the "give the Oscar to the most popular song" with (Everything I Do) I Do It for You from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves missing out. That's not necessarily a bad thing though.

This was Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's second Best Original Song Oscar. Menken also won for Best Original Score (as he did for The Little Mermaid.
Another performance from the Oscars:



1992 - "A Whole New World" (from Aladdin)
Alan Friggin' Menken. Three times in four years. Howard Ashman had passed away, so Menken's lyricist this time was Tim Rice. Even though a couple of the nominees this year were from The Bodyguard, neither of them were I Will Always Love You (which was, of course, a cover of a Dolly Parton song) so Aladdin was always going to win this. It's nothing special.



1993 - "Streets of Philadelphia" (from Philadelphia)
No Disney film this year, so it gave some other songwriters a chance. Some of the nominees: Neil Young, Janet Jackson and the winner, Bruce Springsteen. I'm a huge Springsteen fan now but wasn't at the time, so I was hoping Young would win for his song Philadelphia which is much more moving and is played at the end of the film to great effect. Streets of Philadelphia is pretty damn good though. It was always going to win.



1994 - "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" (from The Lion King)
And then it was Elton John's turn to win an Oscar. I don't know why Alan Menken didn't write the music for The Lion King (Elton wrote the songs with Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer wrote the score, for which he won an Oscar). It still surprises me somewhat that The Lion King didn't get a Best Picture nomination - I think I just figured that the floodgates had opened with Beauty and the Beast's nomination in 1991.

The film received three Best Original Song nominations that year (the other two were Hakuna Matata and Circle of Life).



1995 - "Colors of the Wind" (from Pocahontas)
The Menken juggernaut ended with this film. If you told someone afterwards that he would never win another Oscar they would have thought you were mad (assuming they knew who he was, of course). I'm not sure what happened - he did receive nominations the following two years but no wins, so maybe the mood in the Academy was changing. This film did herald an end to the awesomeness of traditional Disney animation - a little film called Toy Story was released this year and changed everything.



1996 - "You Must Love Me" (from Evita)
People were expecting big things from Evita, including a Best Actress nomination for Madonna, but it didn't happen. I haven't seen the film so I don't know if she deserved a nomination, but it's easy to think that she put everything into her performance at the Oscars that year instead of raising a big middle finger.

I've never been an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan so this song does nothing for me. Maybe it works better in the film.

Here's a clip from the Oscars that year.



1997 - "My Heart Will Go On" (from Titanic)
Even though this is an awful song, it's always nice to see a song which is readily identifiable with a film winning. And one's opinion of the song aside, it works with the film beautifully. This was always going to win, of course - part of the Titanic juggernaut.

A clip from the Oscars:



1998 - "When You Believe" (from Prince of Egypt)
I saw this film at the cinema thinking it was going to be one of the all-time greats in animation. It wasn't. I don't really know what I was thinking.

When You Believe, an uninspiring song from a forgettable film, beat one of the biggest hits of the year, I Don't Want to Miss a Thing from Armageddon. You still hear that song. I wouldn't have a clue what When You Believe sounded like without listening to it.

Another Oscar clip:



1999 - "You'll Be in My Heart" (from Tarzan)
This category reached its nadir with this song. They could have given the Oscar to Blame Canada from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut but instead they gave it to this... urgh. It was their chance to do something different, something special, but instead... well, you know what happened.

I'm almost tempted to have a clip of Blame Canada in protest.



2000 - "Things Have Changed" (from Wonder Boys)
I don't know if it was intentional, but the title of this song could almost have been the Academy assuring critics of this category that everything was going to be different from now on. Probably just a coincidence, but things did change, even if it wasn't intentional. Unlike most of the 90s, some of the winners from 2000 onwards were actually good. Yeah, I know!

One of the best films from 2000 was Wonder Boys - it should have received more nominations than it did - and Bob Dylan's Things Have Changed is easily in my top ten winners of all time. Great track.



2001 - "If I Didn't Have You" (from Monsters Inc.)
In the weeks leading up to the Oscars that year there was a lot of talk about Randy Newman getting a buttload of nominations but no wins. Apparently he was due. I've never been a fan, never will be a fan, so I was hoping he wouldn't win (it didn't help that I wasn't a fan of the film) but he did. Bugger.



2002 - "Lose Yourself" (from 8 Mile)
And so it was that the Academy finally gave an Oscar to a rap song. Anyone ever think this would happen? Not me.

I'm not a fan of rap or hip hop or any of that, but I don't mind this song. I can't really add anything. I was sort of hoping I Move On from Chicago would win but otherwise I was fine with this win.



2003 - "Into the West" (from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)
This film was the favourite to win Best Picture that year but I don't know of many people who were expecting a clean sweep. I don't know if this won because of the sweep or because they really liked the song, but either way I'm fine with the win. A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow from A Mighty Wind had a lot of fans but it never really did anything for me.

A clip from the Oscars:



2004 - "Al otro lada del rio" (from The Motorcycle Diaries)
Well, this is a nice song. Yeah. Further signs that the Academy was progressing a bit with their choices are apparent. Yeah. I have nothing to really add here.

This was the second foreign language song to win after Never On Sunday in 1960.



2005 - "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp" (from Hustle & Flow)
This was the big shock of the year (after Crash beating Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture) and I was quite cross, considering my dislike for the type of music, but after watching the film I changed my mind about it. I was hoping Dolly Parton would win, and she was the favourite, but considering there were only three nominees that year it probably had a fair chance of winning anyway.

A clip from the Oscars:



2006 - "I Need to Wake Up" (from An Inconvenient Truth)
The first documentary (I think) to win more than one Oscar, An Inconvenient Truth was one of the big talking points at the Oscars that year. To this day people still think Al Gore won an Oscar for it which of course he didn't - it went to director David Guggenheim. A shame people can't do a little research sometimes.

I really like this song. I was a little bit against the film winning an Oscar because... well, can you call what is basically a filmed seminar a documentary? But it did change everything - people weren't talking about climate change at all until the film came out.



2007 - "Falling Slowly" (from Once)
I was blown away by this film when I first saw it, and fell in love with the soundtrack when I bought it. How could you not? This is my second favourite film of the decade after Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Falling Slowly is easily my favourite Oscar-winning song. Like It's Hard out Here for a Pimp, the song plays an integral part in the film, and an excellent example of the Academy getting it right for once.

I was hoping the actual scene from the film would be on YouTube, but no such luck.



2008 - "Jai Ho" (from Slumdog Millionaire)
For a few months Bruce Springsteen was expected to take home his second Oscar for the title song from The Wrestler... that was, until he wasn't nominated. It was one of the biggest shocks of last year (on par with The Dark Knight missing out on a Best Picture nomination) and forced people to wonder what would actually win instead.

Two of the songs from Slumdog Millionare were nominated, Jai Ho and O... Saya. It was a bit of a toss-up which would win (not many people gave Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman a chance for Down to Earth from WALL-E) but it was obvious to me that it would be Jai-Ho. It was the more famous of the two, being part of the big Bollywood dance sequence at the end of the film, and I thought it was just a case of it being the better song. It's extremely catchy.

5 comments:

  1. I think "It Might as Well Be Spring" is a beautiful song. Perhaps it's because I'm a fan (and performer) of musical theatre that I appreciate that song, as well as the songs that won Oscars for Frank Loesser, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, even Alan Menken (and I happen to think "A Whole New World" is one of the best Disney songs written).

    I also look much further than what is catchy and what will eventually be a classic song. I look for the songwriters' craft: how the music is structured, how the lyrics and music support each other, musical motifs, lyrical devices and rhyme scheme, how the song adds to the film, etc.

    Of the nominated songs, these are my picks for Best Original Song for the past ten years:

    1999 - "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2
    2000 - "I've Seen It All" from Dancer in the Dark
    2001 - "Until" from Kate & Leopold
    2002 - "I Move On" from Chicago
    2003 - "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" from A Mighty Wind
    2004 - "Al Otro Lado Del Río" from The Motorcycle Diaries (finally, something I thought should have won, and I was thrilled that year!)
    2005 - "Travelin' Thru" from Transamerica
    2006 - "Love You I Do" from Dreamgirls (this song won a Grammy at least)
    2007 - "Falling Slowly" from Once (again, my opinion matched the Academy's, woot!)
    2008 - "Down to Earth" from WALL-E

    This year's Best Original Song? I think "Take It All" from Nine is a standout, and "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart is pretty good too. Both served their purpose in their respective films and are seemingly well-written songs.

    In any case, thanks for pointing out all of these songs. I had no idea so many of the American songbook actually came from movies.

    ~Steven

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  2. Well, I think a part of the problem I had was that I took pretty much every song out of context. The songs may very well have fit into the films perfectly, but as I was getting the clips from YouTube I couldn't really appreciate that aspect of it.

    Thanks for the comment!

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  3. Totally understandable, especially for the older films. :)

    ~Steven

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  4. I appreciate the effort it took to put together this list with all of the YouTube links. But your lack of movie music education doesn't qualify you to comment on most of the songs or movies.

    For example, "The Last Time I Saw Paris" was a hit song prior to appearing in Lady Be Good, and it caused the Academy to update the rules for the "Original Song" category. Perhaps if you understood the World War II context, you might appreciate the song more.

    I have seen all of these movies, even Captain Carey, USA. Technically, "Mona Lisa" is the first non-English songs to win best song, not "Never on Sunday." In the movie, "Mona Lisa" is sung in Italian--Nat King Cole's version does not appear in the movie.

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  5. Hey Anonymous, thanks for the comment.

    I never said I was qualified to comment on the songs - I made it quite clear that the majority of the songs weren't my thing, but I wanted to go through each song anyway and offer my thoughts. It wasn't a critique of the history of music in film, just me having a listen to each song and letting my reader(s) my opinion on each one, coming from someone whose tastes in music (metal and classic rock) will never be catered for in the Best Original Song category.

    It was an eye-opener for me, considering I had never sat down and looked at the list of winners prior to writing this.

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