1939
The Winner: Harold Arlen/Yip Harburg - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (The Wizard of Oz)
Most of these songs seem pretty similar, but it's the Winner that stood the test of time.
1940
The Winner: Leigh Harline/Ned Washington - "When You Wish Upon a Star" (Pinocchio)
When I checked the nominations for this award, I found some surprises (including a tiny piano). I enjoyed "Down Argentine Way" (Harry Warren/Mack Gordon) and "Love of my Life" (Artie Shaw/Johnny Mercer), but "When You Wish Upon a Star has come out as a classic (despite the misleading message).
1941
The Winner: Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II - "The Last Time I Saw Paris" (Lady Be Good)
My Choice: The King's Men - "Song of the Roustabouts" (Dumbo)
When I checked the nominations for this award , I found that "Baby Mine" (Frank Churchill, Betty Noyes and Ned Washington, Dumbo) and "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye (Cole Porter, You'll Never Get Rich) to be the most deserving of them. At least the winner was an okay song. I didn't like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B," but it gets a point just for having an awesome title. I personally would have preferred to see "The Song of the Roustabouts" (The King's Men) and "Pink Elephants on Parade" (The Sportsmen) from Dumbo on this list. I love work songs.
1942
The Winner: Irving Berlin - "White Christmas" (Holiday Inn)
When I checked the nominations for this award, I decided that "White Christmas" was the best of the bunch.
1947
The Winner: Allie Wrubel/Ray Gilbert - "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" (Song of the South)
My Choice: Ralph Bane/Hugh Martin/Roger Edens - "Pass the Peace Pipe" (Good News)
Looking at the nominations, I was surprised to note that "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" was actually outdone in energetic cheer.
1950
The Winner: Ray Evans/Jay Livingston - "Mona Lisa" (Captain Carey, USA)
My Choice: "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" (Cinderella)
Looking at the nominations, I was happy that "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" from Cinderella was nominated, but I would have also liked to see "Sing Sweet Nightingale" and my choice nominated.
1955
The Winner: Nicholas Brodszky/Sammy Cahn - "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" (Love is a Many-Splendored Thing)
My Choice: Sonny Burke/Peggy Lee "He's a Tramp" (Lady and the Tramp)
Looking at the nominations, I don't think any of them are as good as "He's a Tramp" (Lady and the Tramp) sung by Peggy Freakin' Lee. I also would have nominated "Bella Notte," "What is a Baby" and "La La Lu" from that movie. I have to point out that while I love the Righteous Brothers' version of "Unchained Melody," the original sounds pretty awful.
1961
The Winner: Henry Mancini/John Mercer - "Moon River" (Breakfast at Tiffany's)
My Choice: Dmitri Tiomkin/Ned Washington - "Town Without Pity" (Town Without Pity)
Looking at the nominations, I thought "Moon River" was good, but "Town Without Pity" was better. I couldn't find a version of the Love Theme from El Cid with its alleged lyrics, so I'm not sure if it was appropriate for the award, even though I liked it. I would have liked to see "Cruella De Vil" (101 Dalmatians) nominated.
1964
The Winner: Sherman Bros. - "Chim Chim Cher-ee" (Mary Poppins)
Looking at the nominations, I liked "Chim Chim Cher-ee" the best despite Dick Van Dyke's atrocious Cockney accent. "Dear Heart" sounds better when it's sung by Frank Sinatra. I would have nominated the theme for Goldfinger, but this won't be the first Bond song to be snubbed.
1965
The Winner: Johnny Mandel/Paul Francis Webster - "The Shadow of Your Smile" (The Sandpiper)
My Choice: Tom Jones "Thundberball" (Thunderball)
Looking at the nominations, I preferred my original choice.
1966
The Winner: John Barry - "Born Free" (Born Free)
Looking at the nominations, I agree with this choice.
1967
The Winner: Terry Gilkyson - "Talk to the Animals" (Doctor Doolittle)
My Choice: Sherman Bros./Louis Prima - "I Wanna Be Like You" (The Jungle Book)
Looking at the nominations, I'm sticking with my original choice. This demonstrates another disturbing trend: the bias against villain songs. The Winner didn't seem to contain any actual singing until the very end. I did like "Thouroughly Modern Millie," though.
1969
The Winner: Burt Bacharach/Hal David - "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
Looking at the nominees, I agree with the Academy.
1971
The Winner: Isaac Hayes - "The Theme from Shaft" (Shaft)
Looking at the nominees, I agree with the Academy. I think Willy Wonda and the Chocolate Factory deserved some nods for it songs.
1973
The Winner: Marvin Hamlisch/Alan Bergman/Marilyn Bergman - "The Way We Were" (The Way We Were)
My Choice: Paul McCartney - "Live and Let Die" (Live and Let Die)
Looking at the nominees, I'm sticking with my first choice.
1974
The Winner: Al Kasha/Joel Hirschhorn - "We May Never Live Like This Again" (The Towering Inferno)
My Choice: Lulu - "The Man With the Golden Gun" (The Man With the Golden Gun)
Looking at the nominees, I'm sticking with my first choice.
1980
The Winner: Michael Gore/Dean Pitchford - "Fame" (Fame)
Looking at the nominees, I heavily agree with the winner, with "9 to 5" in second place. Oddly enough, this movie justly won a Best Song, but it seemed to steal the Best Score from Empire Strikes Back.
1982
The Winner: Jack Nitsche/Buffy Sainte-Marie - "Up Where We Belong" (An Officer and a Gentleman)
My Choice: Giorgio Moroder/David Bowie - "Putting Out the Fire (With Gasoline)" (Cat People)
Although I'm happy that Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" got nominated, I'm upset my choice wasn't. Also, I didn't know that song didn't happen until Rocky III. Also, Sally Stevens' "Flying Dreams" from Secret of NIMH should have been nominated, too.
1983
The Winner: Giorgio Moroder - "Flashdance...What a Feeling" (Flashdance)
My Choice: Lou Reed - "My Name is Mok" (Rock & Rule)
"Maniac" would have been my second choice. I would have also nominated "Push It to the Limit" from Scarface.
1984
The Winner: Stevie Wonder - "I Just Called to Say I Love You" (The Woman in Red)
My Choice: Bonnie Tyler - "Holding Out for a Hero" (Footloose)
So close, plus I do not like the nominated songs from Footloose. I also would have nominated Ray Parker, Jr.'s "Ghostbusters", "Axel F" from Beverly Hills Cop, and Gladys Knight's theme for License to Kill, and Tahnee Cain and the Tryangles' "Burnin' in the Third Degree" (The Terminator)
1986
The Winner: Giorgio Moroder/Tom Whitlock - "Take My Breath Away" (Top Gun)
My Choice: Cheap Trick - "Mighty Wings" (Top Gun)
Okay, this one pisses off. 1986 was the year of classic 80's rock soundtracks. We had "Danger Zone" and "Mighty Wings" from Top Gun. We had Transformers: The Movie with all its great rock songs ("The Touch" was originally composed for Cobra, but wasn't heard in it). We had Highlander with songs by freakin' Queen. And none of them got nominated. NONE OF THEM. Seriously, if you're going to show a genre bias against 80's hair metal, don't give the award to a piece of pure 80's cheese like "Take My Breath Away!"
1987
The Winner: Franke Previte/John DeNicola/Donald Markowitz - "The Time of My Life" (Dirty Dancing)
My Choice: Van Dyke Parks - "It's a B-Movie" (The Brave Little Toaster)
Out of the nominees, I like George Fenton and Jonas Gwangwa's "Cry Freedom," "Shakedown" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now." I also would have nominated A-Ha's theme for The Living Daylights, and "Worthless" from Brave Little Toaster.
1989
The Winner: Alan Menken/Howard Ashman - "Under the Sea" (The Little Mermaid)
My Choice: Alan Menken - "Poor Unfortunate Souls" (The Little Mermaid)
The Academy begins its proud tradition of giving awards to the least worthy songs from Disney movies while blatantly their best songs.
1990
The Winner: Stephen Sondheim - "Sooner or Later" (Dick Tracy)
My Choice: Basil Poledouris - "The New World" (The Hunt for Red October)
Most of the nominations were good, with the exception of "Blaze of Glory," which makes me almost understand why everyone hates Bon Jovi (even though I have reason not to). I particularly love "Somewhere in My Memory" from Home Alone. But this year demonstrates the Academy's baffling hate for Basil Poledouris. Just because he caught one of you selling crack once doesn't mean you have to hold a petty grudge.
1991
The Winner: Alan Menken/Howard Ashman - "Beauty and the Beast" (Beauty and the Beast)
My Choice: Alan Menken/Howard Ashman - "The Mob Song" (Beauty and the Beast)
My second choice would be "Gaston."
1992
The Winner: Alan Menken/Tim Rice - "A Whole New World" (Aladdin)
My Choice: Thomas Dolby - "Toxic Love" (Ferngully: The Last Rainforest)
Looking at the nominees, I liked "Friend Like Me," but I also would have nominated "One Jump," "Arabian Nights" and "Prince Ali"
1993
The Winner: Bruce Springsteen - "Streets of Philadelphia" (Philadelphia)
My Choice: Danny Elfman - "This Is Halloween" (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
There you have it, people. Bruce Springsteen has an Oscar but Danny Elfman does not.
Bruce Springsteen has an Oscar but Danny Elfman does not.
Bruce Springsteen has an Oscar but Danny Elfman does not.
Bruce Springsteen has an Oscar but Danny Elfman does not.
Bruce Springsteen has an Oscar but Danny Elfman does not.
UUUUUUGHFUCK.
1994
The Winner: Elton John/Tim Rice "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" (The Lion King)
My Choice: Elton John/Tim Rice "Be Prepared" (The Lion King)
Well good work. You awarded the sappiest song in The Lion King, nominated the worst song in The Lion King (ok, that's debatable), and ignored the BEST SONG IN DISNEY HISTORY. Oh well, at least "Circle of Life" deserved a nod. I can't wait until I'm out of the 90's, so I don't have to deal with your nominating the wrong songs from Disney movies.
1995
The Winner: Alan Menken/Stephen Schwartz - "Colors of the Wind" (Pocahontas)
My Choice: Tina Turner - "GoldenEye" (GoldenEye)
I'm sorry, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," I misjudged you. The Academy awarded a song from Pocahontas that seems to have been designed specifically to cause dry heaves in anyone who's not a radical environmentalist while ignoring a much better song from the same movie and the best song in the Bond series. I heard that "Gangsta's Paradise" was out before Dangerous Minds, so I didn't include it.
1996
The Winner: Andrew Lloyd Weber/Tim Rice - "You Must Love Me" (Evita)
My Choice: Alan Menken/Stephen Schwartz - "Hellfire" (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
Wow, just pure sap here. There were a lot of much better songs, most of them from Hunchback of Notre Dame.
1997
The Winner: James Horner/Will Jennings - "My Heart Will Go On" (Titanic)
My Choice: Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty - "In the Dark of the Night" (Anastasia)
Ok, I admit. I kinda like "My Heart Will Go On." But still, they seem to have nominated the sappiest song from Anastasia while ignoring its good stuff. I also would have nominated Sheryl Crow's theme for Tomorrow Never Dies, "Now You're a Man" from Orgazmo and "Big and Loud" from Cats Don't Dance.
1998
The Winner: Stephen Schwartz - "When You Believe" (The Prince of Egypt)
My Choice: Stephen Schwartz - "Rally and the Plagues" (The Prince of Egypt)
There were better songs from Prince of Egypt. There were also good songs in Mulan and Patch Adams.
1999
The Winner: Phil Collins - "You'll Be in My Heart" (Tarzan)
My Choice: Garbage - "The World Is Not Enough" (The World Is Not Enough)
Trey Parker and Matt Stone made a fuss about being beaten by Phil Collins, but I thought there were better songs in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut than "Blame Canada."
2001
The Winner: Randy Newman - "If I Didn't Have You" (Monsters, Inc.)
My Choice: Enya - "May It Be" (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring)
I do believe the Enya song deserved the award. Instead they gave it to Randy Newman for being repetitive.
2002
The Winner: Eminem/Jeff Bass/Luis Resto - "Lose Yourself" (8 Mile)
My Choice: Howard Shore/Fran Walsh/Emiliana Torrini - "Gollum's Song" (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)
Yeah, I don't like rap.
2004
The Winner: Jorge Drexler - "Al otro lado del rio" (The Motorcycle Diaries)
My Choice: Trey Parker - "The End of an Act" (Team America: World Police)
Aside from awarding the song from a puff movie about Che Guevera, the song from Shrek 2 is particularly awful. I think Team America had a great soundtrack that were worthy of nominations. "End of an Act" is the perfect spoof of corny action movie pop songs as well as a great shot at Michael Bay.
2005
The Winner: Juicy J/Frayser Boy/DJ Paul - "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp" (Hustle & Flow)
My Choice: Danny Elfman - "Remains of the Day" (Corpse Bride)
Danny Elfman, I'm sorry you don't have an Oscar. It's not my fault. Gee, they didn't even nominate a full five this time. It's not like there were better songs out there.
2006
The Winner: Melissa Etheridge - "I Need to Wake Up" (An Inconvenient Truth)
My Choice: Chris Cornell - "You Know My Name" (Casino Royale)
"Wait, there's a song in Al Gore's documentary? I guess we better give that an Oscar, too." At least he Dreamgirls songs were good.
2007
The Winner: Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglova - "Falling Slowly" (Once)
My Choice: Hans Zimmer/Gore Verbinski - "Hoist the Colours" (Pirates of the Caribban: At World's End)
It's good to see that most of the songs were from the 90 minutes of half-assery that was Enchanted.
2008
The Winner: A.R. Rahman/Gulzar - "Jai Ho" (Slumdog Millionaire)
My Choice: Jack White/Alicia Keyes - "Another Way to Die" (Quantum of Solace)
Everyone seemed to hate this Bond song except me.
2009
The Winner: Ryan Bingham/T-Bone Burnett - "The Weary Kind" (Crazy Heart)
My Choice: Maury Yeston - "Take it All" (Nine)
A surprisingly good year. "Take It All" is a very sexy song, and Marion Cotillard helps. The soundtrack to Princess and the Frog suffered due to Randy Newman's monotonous style. Even "Friends on the Other Side" stopped being actual music about a minute in.
2010
The Winner: Randy Newman - "We Belong Together" (Toy Story 3)
My Choice: Chris P. Bacon (?) - "The Moonlight Howl" (Alpha and Omega)
Yeah, I picked "Moonlight Howl." I don't care what anyone says. It's awesome. I also like Pharrell's theme for Despicable Me.
2012
The Winner: Adele/Paul Epworth - "Skyfall" (Skyfall)
Yet again the Academy failed to...wait, what? They actually gave the Award to a song that actually deserved it?!!! They haven't done that in over thirty years! And to Bond song, too. That only took them 50 years. Still annoyed by the fact that Ted was nominated.
2013
The Winner: Kristen Anderson Lopez/Robert Lopez - "Let It Go" (Frozen)
Wait a minute, they did it again? That "Let It Go" is one of the few deserving Best Song Awards makes the hipster backlash against Frozen even more irritating to me. Although I think we need a national discourse on how "Frozen Heart" is an underrated song. I also liked "Candy Candy" from Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return.
2014
The Winne: TBA
My Choice: Daniel Ingram - "Battle" (My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks)
(While most of the nominations seem solid, this category is the biggest screw-up of the year. The Best Original Song award broke from tradition the last couple of years by awarding songs that actually deserved it for the first time ever, but now the Academy is back to its old ways. I’m going to be the bad guy here, but I do not understand why everyone likes “Everything is Awesome.” It’s a bland and phoned-in song, and there are much better happy songs out there. I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to have an ironic Stylistic Suck appeal, but that should obviously disqualify it for an award based on earnest musical achievement. It’s the song I will be rooting against.
The other songs in the category are also predictably underwhelming except for John Legend/Common’s “Glory.” With the exception of that song, this years award was a travesty. My money’s on this song just because of
politics, but it’s still the most deserving of the nominees. C’mon Hollywood white guilt, don’t let me
down now. Funny though, I think “The Apology Song” from Book of Life would
have been a good choice due to its ethnic appeal and the fact that it’s far
better than most of the nominees. Oh
well, Hollywood white guilt can only focus on one race at a time, and this is
apparently Black Person Year. “The Yellow Flicker Beat” from Hunger Games was
also a blatant snub.
My nomination
for the biggest snub of the year in this category is honestly…My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks. I don’t want to look like I’m giving any
quarter to the terrible idea that was Equestria
Girls, but the songs in it that are sung by The Dazzlings are actually
really good (especially “Battle”) and far more deserving than any of the
nominees. The movie probably didn’t
warrant a theatrical release, but that does qualify its songs for nominations. Maybe it’s the Academy Awards bias against
awarding songs for movies that were not too critically acclaimed even for
awards in which that’s moot. The Oscars
has also shown a blatant bias against villain songs (the other songs in Rainbow
Rocks kinda suck). If "Everything Is Awesome" wins, it will be a new low for this category, and that's saying something.
Here's the shortened list of the Best Song Oscars I agree with:
1939 - Harold Arlen/Yip Harburg - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (The Wizard of Oz)
1940 - Leigh Harline/Ned Washington - "When
You Wish Upon a Star" (Pinocchio)
1942 - Irving Berlin - "White
Christmas" (Holiday Inn)
1964 - Sherman Bros. - "Chim
Chim Cher-ee" (Mary Poppins)
1966 - John Barry - "Born
Free" (Born Free)
1969 - Burt Bacharach/Hal David - "Raindrops
Keep Falling on My Head" (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
1971 - Isaac Hayes - "The
Theme from Shaft" (Shaft)
1980 - Michael Gore/Dean Pitchford - "Fame"
(Fame)
2012 - Adele/Paul Epworth - "Skyfall"
(Skyfall)
2013 - Kristen Anderson Lopez/Robert Lopez - "Let It
Go" (Frozen)
