Introduction to the best Academy Award winning Best Songs

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This series will attract scant interest since the selected songs with few exceptions harken back to the Golden Age of Hollywood. Can a song remain a classic if no one remembers or cares anymore? The Academy began handing Best Song Oscars in 1934. No song after 1971 makes this cut. Since 1971 there have been few memorable hits and a whole lot of nominated forgettable. Who can name this year’s winner or last year’s without looking it up? Well, I know you can fourwalls considering who won. There was a time when a future classic beat out other future classics to take home the Oscar. The songwriting quality was that rich as Hollywood abounded with legendary talent. There are two particular post-1971 songs that some people would protest as deserving classics. I deeply loathe both Barbra Streisand and “The Way We Were.” Hearing Celine Dion sing “My Heart Will Go On” from “Titanic” one more time will make me scream. Style, class and grace have long since vanished from movie music. The very first Best Song Academy Award winner was “The Continental” (music Con Conrad, lyrics Herb Magidson) from “The Gay Divorcee.” The song is not special in words but in how it was presented. It became a dance craze. Why? “The Continental” was introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in a sensational dance sequence. Astaire and Rogers paired for the first time as supporting players in 1933’s “Flying Down to Rio” and their amazing dancing stole the movie. “The Gay Divorcee” and “The Continental” launched them to immortal superstardom.