1954 Best Original Song - The Biggest Robbery Since Brink's

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WON: "Three Coins in the Fountain," Three Coins in the Fountain

SHOULD'VE WON: "The Man That Got Away," A Star Is Born

In hindsight, the 1954 Oscars could have gone a lot worse - Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, for instance, could have defeated On the Waterfront in Best Picture. Bing Crosby's hammy turn in A Country Girl could've easily kept Marlon Brando from his first Academy Award to boot. With that said, '54 is still kind of a disheartening year - not only was Alfred Hitchcock's brilliant Rear Window not much embraced, but Grace Kelly's dull-as-dishwater turn opposite Crosby managed to defeat the incredible likes of Dorothy Dandridge (fresh and exciting in Carmen Jones), Jane Wyman (stunningly good in Magnificent Obsession) and yes, Judy Garland (a truly show-shopping comeback in A Star Is Born) for Best Actress. Groucho Marx famously lamented that Garland's loss as "the biggest robbery since Brink's."

In fact, the engrossing A Star Is Born failed to score a single victory on any of its six richly deserved nominations on Oscar night, including Best Original Song, where it was nominated for the unforgettable "The Man That Got Away." For my money, this tune is one of those true leading lady musical tour-de-forces, up there with the likes of "Rose's Turn" in Gypsy, "The Ladies Who Lunch" in Company and "If He Walked into My Life" in Mame - it sticks with you long after seeing the whole production. Garland's performance is riveting and the music and lyrics by the comparable Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin are truly phenomenal.

With that said, there's a pretty substantial gap in quality between the Garland tune and the rest.

"Three Coins in the Fountain," gracefully performed here by Frank Sinatra, with music by Jule Styne (one of my all-time favorites), is, much like the film it's featured in, plenty pleasant and agreeable. In another year, I wouldn't much protest its winning but against a juggernaut like "The Man That Got Away," it's just entirely out of its league. Same with "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)," a nice, nuanced Bing Crosby tune that's a fine listen around the holidays but doesn't exactly pop off the screen in White Christmas. Frankly, "Sisters" from the same picture probably would've been a more deserving nominee.

"Hold My Hand" isn't anything to write home about at all - it's featured in Susan Slept Here, an obscure Debbie Reynolds picture, yet isn't even performed by the great Reynolds and instead plays forgettably in the background, performed by Don Cornell. As for The High and the Mighty, that picture's Oscar-winning score, composed by Dimitri Tiomkin, is unimpeachably fantastic. It was so terrific, it managed to drag the film's not-so-amazing original song, performed by Johnny Desmond, to a nomination.

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. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  4. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  5. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  6. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  7. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon (1952)
  8. "Secret Love," Calamity Jane (1953)
  9. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  10. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  11. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  12. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  13. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  14. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  15. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  16. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  17. "Three Coins in the Fountain," Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
  18. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  19. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  20. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  21. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)

1953 Best Original Song - Jerry Lewis Ruins Everything

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WON: "Secret Love," Calamity Jane

SHOULD'VE WON: "My Flaming Heart," Small Town Girl

When I saw Dean Martin's "That's Amore" was among the Best Original Song Oscar nominees in 1953, I was enormously excited and convinced I'd for sure peg it as my favorite of the line-up. I've long been a fan of the tune, mostly on account of my adoration for Norman Jewison's Moonstruck and its prominence in that picture.

Little did I know, however, that this favorite of mine actually began as a duet between Martin and longtime comedy partner Jerry Lewis...and a truly aggravating duet at that. For while Martin's performance of the tune in The Caddy is just fine, the hideously unfunny Lewis, in hyperactive cartoon form, pretty much kills the song. For what it's worth, I've been a fan of Lewis' on occasion in the past - he is, for instance, flat-out brilliant in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy and his filmmaking in The Ladies Man, while imperfect, is quite neat and original - but his slapstick comedy is, to put it mildly, a very acquired taste and it's just not something I can embrace. I find him downright cringe-inducing on this song.

So, with that said, this category is actually a really close call for me between the winning tune, "Secret Love," and "My Flaming Heart," from the so-so Jane Powell MGM musical Small Town Girl. I can't fault anything about either of these songs - Doris Day sounds just glorious in the former and Nat King Cole is smooth and soulful as ever performing the latter. Having listened to this line-up several times in recent days, I would say "My Flaming Heart" holds up a tad better on repeat listens but it's an awfully close call. I can't much fault the Academy's choice.

(On a related note, Day in early 1954 actually refused to perform "Secret Love" live at the Oscars, with Ann Blyth from Mildred Pierce filling in. Louella Parsons' Hollywood Women's Press Club responded by bestowing upon Day their infamous Sour Apple Award for uncooperative celebrities. The "award" left Day distraught and she didn't leave her home for weeks after.)

The remaining two nominees I can't get terribly excited about - "The Moon Is Blue," the title track from the underappreciated William Holden-Maggie McNamara comedy, runs a minute in length and comes and goes without leaving any real impression. And "Sadie Thompson's Song (Blue Pacific Blues)" has Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Jo Ann Greer) singin' the blues and it's just as dull and unremarkable a song as the picture it's featured in.

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. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  4. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  5. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  6. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  7. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon (1952)
  8. "Secret Love," Calamity Jane (1953)
  9. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  10. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  11. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  12. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  13. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  14. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  15. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  16. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  17. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  18. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  19. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  20. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)

1952 Best Original Song - The Snubbin' of Singin' in the Rain

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WON AND SHOULD'VE WON: "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon

Here's a question that needs to be asked - what on earth was the Academy smoking in 1952? This was the year the dreadful The Greatest Show on Earth defeated the legendary likes of High Noon (the winner in this category...which I'll get to in just a bit) and The Quiet Man. It was also the year overbaked garbage like Ivanhoe and John Huston's tedious Moulin Rogue racked up loads of nominations. Anthony Quinn and Gloria Grahame? Not exactly among the all-time finest Supporting Actor and Actress winners.

But for my money, the clearest, most egregious display of nonsense by the Academy in '52 is their near-ignoring of the superb Singin' in the Rain, only bestowing upon this classic two nominations - one for Jean Hagen's hilarious supporting turn, and the other for Lennie Hayton's scoring (which was somehow defeated by With a Song in My Heart, the campy-as-hell Susan Hayward vehicle).

Now, to be fair, when it comes to Singin' in the Rain and Best Original Song in '52, only two of the film's tunes were original and hence eligible for consideration here - the delightful "Make 'Em Laugh," performed by Donald O'Connor, and the O'Connor-Gene Kelly number "Moses Supposes," which, while probably among the weaker tunes from the film, still would've been plenty worthy of a nomination. I would argue "Make 'Em Laugh" should've been in contention for the win.

The good news is, while Singin' in the Rain certainly deserved a presence in this category (and many more), the Academy's line-up for Best Original Song in '52 isn't half-bad.

I'm admittedly not the biggest fan of westerns or the music typically in them, but Tex Ritter's title track from High Noon is pretty darn pitch-perfect; a moody, well-written number, superbly fitting for the film it's in. Playing over the opening credits, it sets the scene so beautifully for the Gary Cooper picture. I'm also quite taken with the Bob Hope-Jane Russell duet "Am I in Love," from Son of Paleface, the sequel to The Paleface, which prevailed in this category in 1948 but ultimately left me rather bored. This one, however, is a real charmer.

I would argue "Zing a Little Zong" is more or less on-par with "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," the Bing Crosby-Jane Wyman number that triumphed in 1951 - it's enjoyable-enough but not terribly memorable. "Because You're Mine" is also admirably performed, by the great tenor Mario Lanza, but the song itself doesn't stand out in any real way. Finally, "Thumbelina" is fun and bouncy, performed with a lot of pep by Danny Kaye, though like a lot of these minute-and-a-half nominated numbers from this time, it comes off like a TV jingle (though not a bad one, in this case) and is awfully fleeting.

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. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  4. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  5. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  6. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  7. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon (1952)
  8. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  9. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  10. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  11. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  12. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  13. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  14. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  15. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  16. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  17. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  18. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  19. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)

1951 Best Original Song - Ah, To Be Young, Rich and Pretty

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WON: "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom

SHOULD'VE WON: "Wonder Why," Rich, Young and Pretty

Ah, 1951. That marvelous year in cinema that produced the legendary likes of, among others, Strangers on a Train, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Place in the Sun and The Day the Earth Stood Still  (yes, I purposely overlook the overrated and exhausting An American in Paris). It's one of those years where I have a nearly impossible time deciding on certain categories, whether it's Streetcar vs. Place in the Sun in Picture or Brando vs. Clift in Lead Actor. All of the Death of a Salesman acting nominees are aces too.

Best Original Song this year is a bit tough too - less, unfortunately, due to the strength of its nominees, but rather on account of the overall ho-humness of the category.

It's not hard to see why "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" prevailed - it is a real pleasure watching Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman sing and dance, in a nicely choreographed scene (in the otherwise forgettable Here Comes the Groom, one of Frank Capra's later and lesser efforts). This is also one of those instances, however, where if the video is stripped and the song itself is judged exclusively on its own terms, there just isn't much meat on the bone. It's pleasant fluff, which might be enough for me in a uber-weak year, but I can't quite select it as my favorite of the five.

I suppose my least favorite of the nominees here would have to be "Too Late Now," which, while admirably performed by Jane Powell in Royal Wedding, is a bit dreary and feels overlong, even at just three and half minutes length. (I have to wonder what Judy Garland, who was originally attached to the Powell role before MGM gave her the boot, would've done with this). I also have mixed feelings on "Never," a mix of dense orchestrations and a bombastic vocal (by Dennis Day), which, when combined, make for an overproduced and nearly unintelligible song.

"A Kiss to Build a Dream On" is an interesting nominee, as it's performed by several folks in The Strip - gorgeously by Louis Armstrong and forgettably by Mickey Rooney, Kay Brown and Sally Forrest. I'm of the mindset Armstrong could sell just about the most average of tunes, while someone like Rooney is dependent on great lyrics and music to prevail, so I tend to think perhaps this isn't the greatest of songs on its own terms. Also, it's a bit curious as to how this song was nominated in 1951 in the first place, given it was written in 1935 and even included (in instrumental form) in 1950's Mister 880. Odd.

Anyway, my pick for Best Original Song of 1951 is "Wonder Why," a lovely tune performed with ample charm by Vic Damone in the cute (and gorgeous-looking) MGM musical Rich, Young and Pretty. It's not the most substantial or powerful or memorable of songs but in a lukewarm field like this, it still stands out in a big way.

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. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  4. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  5. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  6. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  7. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  8. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  9. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  10. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  11. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  12. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  13. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  14. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  15. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  16. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  17. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  18. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)

1950 Best Original Song - The Ultimate Battle: Nat King Cole vs. Cinderella's Fairy Godmother

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WON AND SHOULD'VE WON: "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A.

I've always been quite fond of the 1950 Oscars - not only does it include one of my all-time favorite pictures (Billy Wilder's sensational Sunset Boulevard), but you have unimpeachable classics like All About Eve, Born Yesterday, The Third Man and (to a little lesser extent quality-wise, but still great) Father of the Bride in there too with lots of nominations.

Best Original Song in 1950, I'm afraid, is more of a mixed bag, with really only two particularly memorable nominees - one, the winning "Mona Lisa," and second, the catchy-as-can-be "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo."

"Mona Lisa," featured in the forgettable Alan Ladd war pic Captain Carey, U.S.A., is performed sumptuously here by the always-marvelous Nat King Cole. I consider myself quite a Cole fan and while I've never typically considered "Mona Lisa" among my favorite tunes of his', I am awfully taken by it during this revisit. His performance, coupled with the rich orchestrations, makes for a simply irresistible product.

I do like "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" as well - it has admittedly been stuck in my head in recent days as I've run through this category, and Verna Felton's delivery of it is pitch-perfect. At the same time, I would probably argue Cinderella's "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and "The Work Song" were even more deserving of Oscar nods. And at less than a minute and a half, the song is a little on the fleeting side. Still, it is an iconic and memorable tune and I wouldn't be protesting much if it had prevailed.

The other three nominees are tough to get very excited about. "Be My Love" is richly performed by Kathryn Grayson and Mario Lanza but the song itself isn't terribly interesting, a rather cookie-cutter duet from the lackluster musical The Toast of New Orleans. "Wilhelmina," performed by Betty Grable, reeks of a '50s television commercial jingle. And "Mule Train," while mildly endearing with its "clippetty-clop" chorus, just isn't anywhere near in the same league as something like "Mona Lisa."

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. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  4. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  5. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  6. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  7. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  8. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  9. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  10. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  11. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  12. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  13. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  14. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  15. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  16. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  17. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)