It’s not all teary acceptance speeches, dud decisions by The Academy and frightful frocks at the Oscars. There are also some pretty decent tunes. Alan Corr rounds up his favourite Oscar winning songs.
What would a movie be without music? Well, as Keaton and Chaplin might have answered, lots of things so let’s rephrase the question - what would Psycho be without Bernard Herrmann’s soundtrack as Janet Leigh takes her final ever shower? Would Travis Bickle patrolling the night streets of NYC in Taxi Driver be that brooding without the ominous brass and strings (Herrmann again)?
Or how about Jaws without the slow build of duh-duh-duh-duh build and would Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey really have had the time of their lives in Dirty Dancing without that song?
A great movie can be made even greater - and a naff one improved upon - with the right piece of music and Oscar-winning songs can achieve classic status. Think Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffanys or Issac Hayes’ thrilling Theme from Shaft and not My Heart Will Go On from Titanic or Can You Feel The Love Tonight from The Lion King.
However, getting nommed for an Oscar for Best Original Song is not easy and the reason why is in the award title – it’s got to be an original piece of music written especially for the film in question (no dice so for the sample heavy Gangsta’s Paradise from Dangerous Minds back in ‘95).
The award for Best Original Song was first introduced at the 7th Academy Awards in 1934 (who can forget The Continental from Fred `n’ Ginger’s The Gay Divorcee? Eh, anyone?) and since then the category has thrown up a huge range of songs in which kids movies and musicals have obviously dominated.
This year at the Oscars there are four nominations for best song and we’re hoping Randy Newman gets a little gold statuette (it would be his second) for We Belong Together from Toy Story 3 this Sunday night in Hollywood.
In the meantime, here is our top 10 list of Oscar award winning songs:
Theme From Shaft (Shaft, 1971)
Moon River (Breakfast at Tiffanys, 1961)
Lose Yourself (8 Mile, 2002)
Windmills of Your Mind (The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968)
White Christmas (Holiday Inn, 1942)
Baby It’s Cold Outside (Neptune’s Daughter, 1949)
High Hopes (A Hole in The Head, 1959)
Say You, Say Me (White Nights, 1985)
You Must Love Me (Evita, 1996)
Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire, 2008)
Alan Corr
