And the Oscar Goes To….

Tweet

The nominees for the Academy Awards will be announced January 24. I think Will Smith has the “best slap” award locked up. One of the things that came with the advent of “talkies” was a new Oscar award, Best Original Song. The category began in 1934. Over the years, the Oscars have highlighted some great music. (Some pretty crappy songs, too, but I’m ignoring those.) So, for the first month of 2023, I shall give you my 31 favorite Academy Award-nominated songs. A little explanation: the Academy’s stipulation for the category is that it’s an original song. Granted, that rule didn’t always pass muster (“Mule Train,” which had been recorded in 1947, was nominated for a “Best Original Song” Oscar in 1950 once it was included in the film Singing Guns). Still, it explains why Scott Joplin’s composition “The Entertainer” wasn’t nominated when it was used in the film The Sting. There’s another thing as well: not all of the songs that were nominated were the “hit version” that you know. In fact, there are a couple on this list that just might shock you to discover that they originated in a movie. Usually, I’m going to use the version from the movie. Now, that means that there’s going to be a repeat artist. To compensate for me breaking my usual rule of “one artist per countdown,” I’ll use only one song from a movie. So relax, it’s not going to be the entire soundtrack to Frozen for the list. (Kidding: I don’t have kids so I’ve never seen it.) As usual when I do a month-long list, the first portion will be alphabetical, while the top ten favorites will close out the month. Along the way, you’ll see how sappy and sentimental I can be. Your teaser comes courtesy of the guy you’ve probably heard too much of the past month, Bing Crosby (although I seriously doubt his version of the 1942 Oscar-winning “White Christmas” [from the film Holiday Inn] is the one played anymore). This song won the 1944 Best Original Song award from the film Going My Way.