1945 Best Original Song - Vera-Ellen Steals the Show

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WON: "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair

SHOULD'VE WON: "So in Love," Wonder Man

At last, we have arrived at 1945, the final year (to date, at least) in which the Academy nominated 10 or more entries in the Best Original Song category. In fact, they went out with something of a bang, recognizing a hefty 14 songs. Ultimately, I'm afraid to say, there isn't enough strong material at play here to even fill up a solid category of five.

Let's get the most lackluster nominees out of the way first: "More and More" marks yet another rather bombastic Deanna Durbin song recognized by the Academy; "Love Letters" is just as melodramatic and ludicrous as the Jennifer Jones-Joseph Cotton yarn it hails from (though it was admittedly a decent hit back in the day and later used quite effectively in David Lynch's Blue Velvet); "I'll Buy That Dream" sounds and is staged like a gratingly cheerful TV commercial; and "Linda," clocking in at about one minute in length, is just inexplicable as an Oscar nominee in every regard.

Then there are the nicely performed, but mostly forgettable numbers: "I Fall in Love Too Easily," charmingly delivered by Frank Sinatra but not one of the more memorable moments from the delightful Anchors Aweigh; Bing Crosby doing fine, serviceable deliveries of "Aren't You Glad You're You" and "Accentuate the Positive"; and then Martha Mears (dubbing for Rita Hayworth) and Dinah Shore in lovely form on the undistinguished "Anywhere" and "Some Sunday Morning," respectively.

I can't knock the win for "It Might As Well Be Spring" too much - I do adore State Fair, Jeanne Crain sounds terrific and I'm certainly glad Rodgers and Hammerstein were able to pick up an Oscar in their tremendous careers. I'm just not sure it's really a standout moment from the film or even one of the best Rodgers and Hammerstein pieces.

Contrast that with "So in Love," a truly dynamite number from a not-so-dynamite film, that nonetheless lifts its picture to high heavens, even if it's only for about six and a half minutes. The song itself is terrific and it's staged just marvelously on screen, beautifully choreographed and performed exquisitely by Vera-Ellen, who really doesn't get enough recognition these days. "So in Love" is perhaps the most purely fun song I've come across thus far in Best Original Song.

The Oscar-winners ranked (thus far)...

  1. "Over the Rainbow," The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  2. "The Way You Look Tonight," Swing Time (1936)
  3. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  4. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  5. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  6. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  7. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  8. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  9. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  10. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  11. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  12. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)

1944 Best Original Song - That Time Bing Hijacked Judy's Trolley

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WINNER: "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way

SHOULD'VE WON: "Long Ago (and Far Away)," Cover Girl

In spite of my awarding of him for "Love in Bloom" in the very first line-up in 1934 (which, let's face it, was because the category was supremely anemic), this look back at Best Original Song seems to be reaffirming my general lack of love for Bing Crosby.

I do like a number, if not most of Crosby's nominated work throughout these '30s and '40s line-ups, but there's just not a whole lot of enthusiasm there for me. It's material I find myself more admiring than being head-over-heels for. And when it comes to his winning "Swinging on a Star" from Going My Way (for which he won what should've been Charles Boyer's Best Actor Oscar), I can't help but just feel stumped. I think it's underwhelming, borderline-grating tune. For what it's worth, most do seem to like it - it ranked a decent #37 on AFI's "100 Years...100 Songs" list. So perhaps I'm just missing something.

The winning song aside, I like '44 Best Original Song for the most part. There are few forgettable entries, though they aren't bad like, say, "Saludos Amigos" - the Dinah Shore-performed "I'll Walk Alone" and "Now I Know," for instance, are admirably performed, digestible tunes, but come and leave without leaving a notable dent. Same with the Jackie Moran-performed "Too Much in Love" - listenable and nothing more. "I'm Making Believe" was later a great standard for others, but barely leaves a blip in just over a minute of Sweet and Lowdown. As for "Remember Me to Carolina," it's a bit tough - well, honestly, almost impossible - to sit through Benny Fields' blackface performance. I have not seen Minstrel Man and the clip of this song doesn't exactly inspire me to seek it out. But I also can't deny Fields has an awfully rich vocal.

The other four nominees lift this category considerably.

Tito Guizar's vocal performance of "Rio de Janeiro" is a real stunner - not sure the song itself is much to write home about, but his delivery is memorable for sure and it's the kind of find that will inspire me to seek out other work of his'. Likewise, I love-love-love Judy Garland on "The Trolley Song" - she sells it and turns it into an iconic movie moment. But I can't imagine anyone else being able to so successfully pull this fluff (and kind of repetitive fluff at that) off.

I actually most love the remaining two nominees. Higher and Higher marked Frank Sinatra's film debut and "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night" finds Ol' Blue Eyes in atypically and refreshingly vulnerable form. It's a sweet, tender tune on its own terms and his convincing delivery makes it all the more impressive.

But ultimately, it's Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth/Martha Mears (dubbing) on "Long Ago (and Far Away)" that most sweeps me off my feet. The song is simply pure Technicolor romance and a real charmer. It also quite reminds me of "Long Before I Knew You," from Bells Are Ringing (my all-time favorite musical), which certainly doesn't hurt. I could listen to this on repeat for hours.

The Oscar-winners ranked (thus far)...

  1. "Over the Rainbow," The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  2. "The Way You Look Tonight," Swing Time (1936)
  3. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  4. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  5. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  6. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  7. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  8. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  9. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  10. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  11. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)

1943 Best Original Song - God Bless Ethel Waters

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WON: "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello

SHOULD'VE WON: "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe," Cabin in the Sky

In reviewing these 10-nominee Best Original Song line-ups from the '40s, I can't help but think of Oprah Winfrey and her extravagant giveaways of the past - only here, it's "you get an Oscar nomination...and you get an Oscar nomination too.....and hey, you get one too, because why not!" That's the only way I can rationalize a frivolous minute-and-10-second fluff tune like "Saludos Amigos" having garnered recognition - the Academy must've just been bestowing nominations upon everything.

Not to start sounding redundant in my analysis, but '43 marks yet another hit-or-miss year in original tunes at the Oscars, with just two truly outstanding nominees (neither of which is the winner), a few solid, if rather unremarkable tracks and then a whole lot of category filler.

Let's first get the more lackluster nominees out of the way here - besides the aforementioned "Saludos Amigos" (which unequivocally, absolutely, without the slightest doubt simply has to be the worst Disney song ever nominated in this category), "Say a Prayer for the Boys Over There" (Deanna Durbin at her most bombastic), "Change of Heart" (a poorly produced Jule Styne piece where the music is so dense and overpowering, it's difficult to comprehend the lyrics), "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" (a decent Cole Porter composition later covered nicely by the likes of Dinah Shore and Nina Simone but not sold very well here by Don Ameche and Janet Blair) and "We Mustn't Say Goodbye" (an Al Dubin piece nicely performed by Lanny Ross but not even among the more memorable songs from Stage Door Canteen) just aren't of Oscar-calibur.

There are two songs here that are sumptuously performed - "My Shining Hour" (by the lovely and awfully underrated Joan Leslie) and, the winner, "You'll Never Know" (by the terrific Alice Faye, who just two years later would see her film career temporarily end on account of bizarre contractual issues...she would not return to the big screen until 1962, in the remake of State Fair). Both tunes are a pleasure to listen to, if perhaps a bit unremarkable beyond the great vocals. Glenn Miller's "That Old Black Magic," on the other hand, is an absolute treasure to take in instrumentally, but the Johnny Johnston version showcased in Star Spangled Rhythm is, at least in my humble opinion, not quite of the same calibur as many of the covers to come - Ella Fitzgerald, Margaret Whiting, Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland, and perhaps more beyond that, breathed more life into the song. 

Now let's get to the really good stuff.

"They're Either Too Young or Too Old" is a delightfully charming, witty song and it's the only occasion on which Bette Davis has performed a musical number on the big screen. Frank Loesser, who would later win an Oscar for "Baby, It's Cold Outside," but was really more known for his work on Broadway (Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) wrote this charmer and Davis sells it effortlessly. In most years, I'd almost certainly give this one the prize.

Alas, this is a year with Ethel Waters.

Waters, who would later that decade garner an Oscar acting nod for her tremendous work in Elia Kazan's Pinky, commands the screen in a way so few could as she sings "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe" from Vincente Minnelli's film adaptation of Broadway's Cabin in the Sky. The song, composed by the Harold Arlen-Yip Harburg team who gave us The Wizard of Oz, is also plenty wonderful on its own terms and was covered to great success by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Judy Garland, among others (note that Arlen also composed two other nominees this year - "My Shining Hour" and "That Old Black Magic"). But it really is Waters' powerhouse vocal that puts the tune so over-the-top in the film.

The Oscar-winners ranked (thus far)...

  1. "Over the Rainbow," The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  2. "The Way You Look Tonight," Swing Time (1936)
  3. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  4. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  5. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  6. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  7. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  8. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  9. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  10. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)

1942 Best Original Song - My Apologies to Bing and Judy...

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WON: "White Christmas," Holiday Inn

SHOULD'VE WON: "I've Heard That Song Before," Youth on Parade

Another year, another rather mixed bag on the whole, another tough call among two or three truly great songs.

The travesty of 1942 Best Original Song is the two strongest songs of the year are nowhere to be found among the Oscar nominees - the timeless "I'm Old Fashioned," from the Fred Astaire-Rita Hayworth musical You Were Never Lovelier (instead represented here by the decidedly inferior "Dearly Beloved"), and the delightful "(We're Off on the) Road of Morocco" from the classic Bing Crosby-Bob Hope comedy Road to Morocco.

Instead, we're stuck with a couple of fleeting, frivolous tracks in "Always in My Heart" and "There's a Breeze on Lake Louise" (great title...not much of a song, unfortunately). Bambi's "Love Is a Song," which you may (or may not, given its quality) recall plays over the film's opening credits, certainly isn't among the more memorable Disney songs. And "Pig Foot Pete," while charmingly peppy and bouncy enough, doesn't leave much of an impression either. (Note: "Pig Foot Pete," officially, was nominated for the musical Hellzapoppin'...even though it's not featured in that picture, but instead the Abbott and Costello comedy Keep 'Em Flying.)

"(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo" is performed with considerable finesse and energy by the Glenn Miller Orchestra in Orchestra Wives but in hindsight is perhaps most notable for being the A-side to B-side "At Last," which of course would go on to be an unforgettable record decades later for Etta James. "Kalamazoo," while fun, isn't exactly an unforgettable time.

For me, this year comes down to the Judy Garland-performed "How About You," the Margaret Whiting-performed (well, dubbed) "I've Heard That Song Before" and the winner, the Bing Crosby-performed classic "White Christmas."

"How About You" is a real charmer, with a marvelous Garland vocal...it really does transport you back to '40s New York. And while I actually much prefer Darlene Love's cover of "White Christmas" (on the 1963 Phil Spector Christmas album, which is really one of the all-time great albums in any genre), Crosby's original is an unimpeachable classic.

Ultimately, however, I have to (again) side with the Jule Styne nominee, "I've Heard That Song Before," from a film I've never heard of before, Youth on Parade. The combo of Styne's music, Sammy Cahn's reliably terrific lyrics and Whiting's sensational vocal is too much for me to resist. Harry James and Helen Forrest would later go on to perform an even more wonderful cover of the song, which was used to perfection throughout Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters.

The Oscar-winners ranked (thus far)...

  1. "Over the Rainbow," The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  2. "The Way You Look Tonight," Swing Time (1936)
  3. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  4. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  5. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  6. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  7. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  8. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  9. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)

1941 Best Original Song - All Hail Those Andrews Sisters

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WON: "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good

SHOULD'VE WON: "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B," Buck Privates

1941, the year when How Green Is My Valley famously (and, in my humble opinion, deservedly) defeated Citizen Kane for the Best Picture prize, isn't the most spectacular year in Best Original Song, I'm afraid.

Five of the nine nominated tracks fail to leave much of an impression at all. For 1940, I rather shockingly opted to give the Frances Langford-performed "Who Am I" my support over "When You Wish Upon a Star." Langford is back in '41, this time with "Out of the Silence" from the supremely obscure, '80s-teen-sex-comedy-sounding All-American Co-Ed. But while Langford's vocal is just as glorious on this track, the song completely lacks the lyrical strength of Jule Styne's "Who Am I." Two more tracks, "Blues in the Night" and "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye," are soulfully performed, by William Gillespie and the Four Tunes respectively, but short and fleeting. "Be Honest with Me" is a mildly charming little ditty from Gene Autry but again, at a minute and a half, it comes and goes without really leaving a dent. "Dolores" is like microwaved Johnny Mathis.

The winning song, "The Last Time I Saw Paris," composed by Jerome Kern and written by Oscar Hammerstein II, is the track that famously inspired the Academy to alter its rules in Best Original Song and only allow songs specifically written for their motion picture to be eligible for consideration - Kern, who didn't bother to attend this year's ceremony, on account of not believing he'd win, basically protested the victory, as the song wasn't written for Lady Be Good or performer Ann Sothern specifically. The thing is, despite Sothern's fine vocal, "Paris" really isn't one of Hammerstein's better works, at least in my humble opinion. Given its release in the WWII era, it's understandable how and why it prevailed, but I don't think it has the same weight looking back on it today.

For me, the three best nominees here are quite clearly "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "Baby Mine" and "Chattanooga Choo Choo."

The Dumbo and Sun Valley Serenade tunes are both unforgettable because of the ways they're incorporated in the respective pictures. The "Baby Mine" scene is downright devastating, almost certainly the most heartbreaking thing ever portrayed in a Disney picture. And "Chattanooga Choo Choo," performed by the irresistible Dorothy Dandridge, is showcased in a dance number that's an absolute ball to watch. The thing is, though, these are songs that don't play nearly as well in strictly audio form - you've got to have the visual to boot, or else the effect just isn't there. Frankly, I'd probably skip "Baby Mine" in an audio compilation of Disney songs, because the music itself isn't all that compelling - it just happens to be featured in such a beautiful scene.

This isn't the case with "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," a joyful, timeless number, performed masterfully here by the Andrews Sisters and covered time and time again over the half century and more to follow, most notably by Bette Midler. You can't help but sing along, even if the tune is technically a little on the slight side.

The Oscar-winners ranked (thus far)...

  1. "Over the Rainbow," The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  2. "The Way You Look Tonight," Swing Time (1936)
  3. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  4. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  5. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  6. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  7. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  8. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)