Feb 10 2009
Oscar Focus: Best Original Song
— Click to Go Back to Page 2 —
1990’s
1991 was dominated by Beauty and the Beast with 3 nominations for the title song, Be Our Guest and Belle. Eventually Robin Hood‘s Everything I Do I Do It For You lost out to the title song, Beauty and the Beast. Another cartoon won the following year – Aladdin‘s Whole New World beat it’s own Friend Like Me and The Bodyguard‘s I Have Nothing and Run to You. I Will Always Love You was not eligible because of the rule mentioned earlier. In 1992 one of the best songs ever to win came out on top – Streets of Philadelphia (Philadelphia) was one of the many occasions where the song was far better than the movie. Tom Hanks‘ film was overly sentimental, patronising and generally up it’s own arse while Springsteen‘s song was understated, moving and timeless.
In 1994 The Lion King deserved to win anything and everything. With three of its songs nominated, Can You Feel the Love Tonight came out on top. Can you imagine what Elton John‘s aftershow party must have been like? (Maxi Cane, do NOT answer that question)
— Can You Feel The Love Tonight —
Colours of the Wind (Pocahontas) took the ‘95 Award which probably should have gone to Bryan Adams‘ Have You Ever Really Love A Woman (Don Juan De Marco) and ’96 was a strange choice in Evita‘s You Must Love Me. Irritating as Celine Dion is, there is no discounting the huge cultural impact of her song for Titanic, My Heart Will Go On. The other notable nominee that year was from an action movie, Con Air – How Do I Live written by Diane Warren and sung by LeAnn Rimes. ’98 and ’99 returned to animation with When You Believe (The Prince of Egypt) and Phil Collins’ You’ll Be In My Heart (Tarzan) beating Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing (Armageddon) and South Park’s Blame Canada. I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing was another Diane Warren song and was originally intended for Celine Dion. On stage at the 72nd Awards ceremony, Blame Canada was performed by Robin Williams.
2000 – The Present
And thus we enter the Naughties. Orchestral-pop, rap, R’n’B and Indian music have permeated through the Academy’s cracks. The year 2000 was something of a fix with Bob Dylan picking up an award for his fairly innocuous song Things Have Changed (Wonder Boys). There’s no doubting that Bob Dylan is a legend, but to award him for this track seems to be an insult more than an honour.
2001 continued the cartoonery with If I Didn’t Have You from Monsters, Inc. picking up the award ahead of a moving piece from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, May It Be, and Paul McCartney’s Vanilla Sky (Vanilla Sky). It was 2002 that began to change the scenery. Though some traditional contenders such as Paul Simon‘s beautiful Father and Daughter were nominated, it was Eminem‘s genius Lose Yourself (8Mile) that won the gong.
— Lose Yourself —
The Lord of the Rings was honoured in 2003, but 2004’s On the Other Side of the River (Al otro lado del río) from The Motorcycle Diaries was groundbreaking. Not only was it just the second foreign language song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song and the first Spanish song to win, it was also a damn good tune.
— On the Other Side of the River —
2005 was a poor year by recent standards. Three songs were nominated and I’m not sure I’d agree that any of them deserved it. It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp (Hustle and Flow) won out. The following year was a surprise and an upset to some who thought Dreamgirls was guaranteed the Oscar. That movie had three songs up for nomination, but it was I Need to Wake Up from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth that won the prize.
— I Need to Wake Up —
Which brings us back to the start and 2007’s wonderful win by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. I was almost sad to see the three wonderful songs from Enchanted lose out, but to see the joy and pride on Hansard and Irglová’s faces, all that sympathy disappears. Once was not a big studio production – it was a labour of love and to see it honoured in some way on such a huge world stage, there will never be a moment like it at the Academy Awards again. And most importantly, they deserved every bit of it.
And so, to 2008. With just three songs nominated, it would seem Slumdog Millionaire‘s Jai Ho and O Saya are the bookie’s favourites, but Wall-E‘s Down to Earth could still claim the Oscar. I’ll be watching on February 22nd. Will you?
— Jai Ho —
— O Saya —
— Down to Earth —
I plan to follow this up with a short (I promise) post with a list of My Top Five Best Original Song Winners. Stay tuned. 🙂
*officially impressed*
So the oscar night party is at your gaff then?
Or is it a case of you playing an oscar night DJ turn?
For me Wall-E ’s Down to Earth should claim the Oscar.
I’ve not seen Slumdog Millionaire yet, but on listening to the two songs nominated, there both ‘crap’ to put it bluntly.
All three are a bit of a let down compared to last years winner obviously.
Fantastic post Darren btw 😉 fair play to ya ! 🙂 Must have taken a bit of time and research.
@Darragh Well, thank you very much.
@Will I’ve just asked for the Monday after the Oscars off from work. It’s straight after the blog awards, so I’m not sure who would be up for another party, I will definitely be watching the show. I’ll give it some thought over the next day or so.
@Ian I spent ages reading up on it. It’s just so interesting. I know it’s a long post but I enjoyed writing it so much. I’m hoping to do another Oscar Focus on Best Actress next. (If I can find the time) 🙂
thanks for the history lesson .. i guess? 😛
but good first half of the post 😀
Hudson Hawk!!!!!!!
How d’you get time for such long posts?
You can’t do a post this size about best original song and not mention Elliott Smith!
I tend to quite like the best score a lot more, even though the rightful winner usually doesn’t get it(morricone hasn’t won once!).
Was delighted when Eminem won with his last great song, odds were meant to be so low that he didn’t bother turning up.
Finally watched Once, hugely disappointing but I adored Bachelor’s Walk so I probably had silly expectations.
Falling Slowly shouldn’t have been allowed in either. Jonny Greenwood got disqualified cos they thought his Morricone-esque one may’ve been made for Radiohead’s new album… meanwhile falling slowly WAS a f*cking bonus track on the Frames one(not sure what edition)
@Dermot Is that because you only made it half way before giving up with boredom? 🙂
@RP Thought you might like that alright.
How can there only be three this year?
I just can’t get over some of the songs that were written for the movie. I mean why Up Where We Belong? What has that got to do with the movie?