Hit songs from the Oscars

The nominees this year are all deserving. Mighty River performed and written by R&B diva Mary J. Blige. She was positively gorgeous in that red gown at the Academy Awards held last Sunday at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. There is also Mystery Of Love from Call Me By Your Name by the reclusive Sufjan Stevens who also gladly came to perform.

Then Remember Me from the animated Disney picture Coco and composed by the winning tandem for Let It Go from Frozen for the year 2013,   Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez which I must say sounds doubly touching in Spanish. Stand Up For Something, written by frequent nominee Diane Warren and hip-hop star Common, was sung by the incredible Audra Day. 

Plus of course, This Is Me from the blockbuster-selling soundtrack of The Greatest Showman, performed by Keala Settle and composed by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul who were winners last year for City Of Stars from La La Land. Am so partial to the songs from this musical that I think more of them should have been nominated and as winner would have been popular choices. Why everybody is now singing A Million Years and Rewrite The Stars.

But not everybody thinks the same way and there can only be one winner. And the Best Song from a Motion Picture in 2017 is Remember Me or Recuerdame from Coco. It was performed at the Oscars by the enchanting tandem of Gael Garcia Bernal, Miguel and Natalia Lafourcade.  As it is, the song now has the distinction of being the 83rd winner in this category given out during the Academy’s 90th-anniversary show. 

Please note that while the Academy first gave out awards in 1929 and the Best Motion Picture Score was included from the beginning, it was only later in 1934 that the members of the Academy decided to add the Best Song award. It was only fair. That was surely an acknowledgement of the big role that songs play in enhancing or adding to the message of a photoplay.

It was decided then that as in the other categories, the songwriter/composer-members will choose the nominees but the entire body will vote for the winners. To qualify, a song must have been composed exclusively for and used in a movie. The first winner was an upbeat tune The Continental from the movie The Gay Divorcee which starred the singing and dancing pair of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. 

Oscar voters are not infallible in matters of filmmaking excellence.  Hence, they have made what I believe were booboos in their choices.  Still, even those that I believe are undeserving now have the description Academy Award winner attached to their titles.  On the other hand though, the Oscars have also been responsible for some of the most beautiful and most enduring songs of this lifetime.

Among the Best Song winners that remain top favorites to this day are: The Way You Look Tonight, Swing Time, 1936; Over The Rainbow, The Wizard Of Oz, 1939; When You Wish Upon A Star, Pinocchio, 1940; White Christmas, 1942; Baby It’s Cold Outside, Neptune’s Daughter, 1949; Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, 1955; All The Way, The Joker Is Wild, 1957.

Moon River, Breakfast At Tiffany’s, 1961; Shadow Of Your Smile, The Sandpiper, 1965; Windmills Of Your Mind, The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968; Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, 1969; For All We Know, Lovers And Other Strangers, 1970; The Way We Were, 1973; Evergreen, A Star Is Born, 1976.

Fame, 1980; Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do), Arthur, 1981; Up Where We Belong, An Officer And A Gentleman, 1982; I Just Called To Say I Love You, Woman In Red, 1984; Say You Say Me, White Nights, 1985; Take My Breath Away, Top Gun, 1986; I’ve Had The Time Of My Life, Dirty Dancing 1987; Under The Sea, The Little Mermaid, 1989.

Beauty And The Beast, 1991; A Whole New World, Aladdin, 1992; Streets Of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 1993; Can You Feel The Love Tonight, The Lion King, 1994; My Heart Will Go On, Titanic, 1997; You’ll Be In My Heart, Disney’s Tarzan, 1999; Lose Yourself, 8 Mile, 2002; Jai Ho, Slumdog Millionaire, 2008; Skyfall, 2012; Let It Go, Frozen, 2013; Writing’s On The Wall, Spectre, 2015; and City Of Stars, La La Land, 2016. 

P. S. The Oscar Awards this year was mostly predictable. Same expected winners throughout and some laughs from host Jimmy Kimmel. But I am sure you will agree that the presentation was flawless, no mistakes throughout.

And I was so touched by that montage of filmclips celebrating the Academy’s 90th anniversary. I must really love the movies. I recognized almost all the scenes and the stars and I got all goosey and teary-eyed watching.  Charge that to the incredible power of the movies.