1961 Best Original Song - Sorry, Holly Golightly...

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WON: "Moon River," Breakfast at Tiffany's

SHOULD'VE WON: "Town Without Pity," Town Without Pity

Nope, your eyes are not deceiving you.

When I first approached this category, I experienced a bit of a double-take - I either forgot or simply hadn't realized singer Gene Pitney's "Town Without Pity," which I've long considered one of the most underrated, perhaps even greatest rock tunes of the early '60s, in fact made its debut in the gripping (and itself underappreciated as well) Kirk Douglas drama Town Without Pity. To boot, I certainly had no idea that Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington, the same brilliant team behind the Oscar-winning High Noon theme, were responsible for composing this terrific record.

"Town Without Pity," which was actually the first-ever Golden Globe winner for Best Original Song, has always struck me as basically the greatest Elvis Presley song that Elvis never recorded - it's a sultry, passionate, expertly produced and performed record that no doubt scored heaps of jukebox airtime back in the day. I can imagine upcoming rock acts like The Beatles heard and were greatly inspired by "Town Without Pity" and there's no doubt producer Phil Spector, who hired Pitney to write "He's a Rebel" the following year, was too very much enamored with the track.

My gushing over "Town Without Pity" complete, I really like "Moon River" too. I can't knock the American Film Institute for ranking it #4 on their list of "100 Years...100 Songs" a number of years back. Henry Mancini is an unimpeachable genius (I have no doubt I'll give him the win at some point) and Audrey Hepburn's delivery of the tune couldn't be lovelier. I just admittedly don't feel considerable passion for the song. It's a moving, restrained, immensely listenable piece, and I'd probably support it in most other Best Original Song years, but I'm having a tough time chalking up over-the-top enthusiasm for it.

After the terrific "Town Without Pity" and "Moon River," it's a pretty significant gap in quality to the remaining nominees.

"Bachelor in Paradise" (also composed by Mancini) and "Pocketful of Miracles," like the pictures they've featured in, are admirably peppy but awfully slight and not too memorable. "The Falcon and the Dove," the love theme from the overblown Charlton Heston-Sophia Loren epic El Cid, is a bit of a curiosity - composer Miklós Rózsa's score to the film is actually quite splendid, yet the picture's original song, performed by Billy Storm, is just as overbaked as most of the film itself. Not sure what happened there.

What a shame these three tunes were recognized, yet 101 Dalmations' marvelous "Cruella De Vil" and Blue Hawaii's "Can't Help Falling in Love," which is right up there with "Town Without Pity" as one of the best Billboard hits of this era, were given the cold shoulder.

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. "High Hopes," A Hole in the Head (1959)
  4. "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
  5. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  6. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  7. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  8. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  9. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon (1952)
  10. "Secret Love," Calamity Jane (1953)
  11. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  12. "Moon River," Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
  13. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  14. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  15. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  16. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  17. "All the Way," The Joker Is Wild (1957)
  18. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  19. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  20. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  21. "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
  22. "Never on Sunday," Never on Sunday (1960)
  23. "Three Coins in the Fountain," Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
  24. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  25. "Gigi," Gigi (1958)
  26. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  27. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  28. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)

 

1960 Best Original Song - Wait, Where Are Blair and Tootie?

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WON: "Never on Sunday," Never on Sunday

SHOULD'VE WON: "The Green Leaves of Summer," The Alamo

Damn. For a moment, I thought maybe, just maybe "The Facts of Life," Oscar nominee for Best Original Song in 1960, was the same irresistible cheese that served as theme song to the great Charlotte Rae '80s sitcom. Alas, not only is that not the case, but I've been reminded that theme song connoisseur and TV dad Alan Thicke in fact served as co-writer on the '80s tune. Oh well.

Blair, Tootie, Jo, Natalie and Mrs. G aside, '60 Best Original Song is a mostly enjoyable affair and remarkable in at least one regard - it produced the first winner to hail from a foreign language film, the Melina Mercouri-starrer Never on Sunday, which also garnered a boatload of other nods that year, including for its leading lady and director, Jules Dassin (ultimately, it only went home with the Original Song prize).

I can't begrudge the Academy too much for going with "Never on Sunday" here - Mercouri's delivery of it is engaging and very sexy - but I've listened to covers of the tune and it doesn't seem to quite hold up on its own terms. I think the victory here is very much a product of Mercouri's dazzling performance and less of the song itself.

For me, '60 Original Song is actually a bit of a barn burner, not between "Never on Sunday" and another nominee, but rather "The Green Leaves of Summer," the theme from John Wayne's The Alamo, and "Faraway Part of Town," which is featured in the dreadful Catinflas "comedy" Pepe, yet very much notable as a late Judy Garland effort - and a fascinating one at that.

The Alamo really isn't among the greatest Wayne vehicles - in fact, it's pretty overbaked and arguably an entire hour overlong - but the music, from Dimitri Tiomkin, who also did High Noon, is fantastic and "The Green Leaves of Summer" is full of rich atmosphere. It was also later used to terrific effect in the opening sequence of Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. As for the Garland track, it's a terrific discovery, a fine song in its own right, lifted to even greater heights by her incredible vocal performance...but it's kind of tough for me to fully embrace this song for the win, given Garland doesn't even appear in Pepe - the tune merely plays in the background during one scene, featuring future Oscar-winner Shirley Jones. Since "The Green Leaves of Summer" is such an integral part of its film and "Faraway Part of Town," while plenty interesting, is basically a throwaway in its picture, I have to lean toward the former as my pick.

"The Facts of Life," from the enjoyable Bob Hope-Lucille Ball vehicle of the same name, is a fun, peppy little tune, utilized to nice effect in the picture's clever opening title sequence. It isn't quite in the same league as the other two nominees, though. Finally, there's "The Second Time Around," a Bing Crosby number from Blake Edwards' messy comedy High Time, and while it's been covered quite memorably a number of times since the original, including by Rosemary Clooney and Barbra Streisand, I actually find the Crosby version curiously flat.

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. "High Hopes," A Hole in the Head (1959)
  4. "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
  5. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  6. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  7. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  8. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  9. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon (1952)
  10. "Secret Love," Calamity Jane (1953)
  11. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  12. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  13. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  14. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  15. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  16. "All the Way," The Joker Is Wild (1957)
  17. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  18. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  19. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  20. "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
  21. "Never on Sunday," Never on Sunday (1960)
  22. "Three Coins in the Fountain," Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
  23. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  24. "Gigi," Gigi (1958)
  25. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  26. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  27. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)

1959 Best Original Song - The One Where I Finally Pick a Sinatra Song

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WON AND SHOULD'VE WON: "High Hopes," A Hole in the Head

Over the past 25 years of Best Original Song I've thus far tackled, I have encountered half a dozen nominees performed by the incomparable Frank Sinatra - 1958's "To Love and Be Loved," 1957's Oscar-winning "All the Way," 1955's "(Love Is) The Tender Trap," 1954's "Three Coins in the Fountain," 1945's "I Fall in Love too Easily" and 1944's "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night."

All of those are pretty terrific tunes, yet, mostly on account of superior competition, I haven't yet selected a Sinatra-performed song as my favorite of an Original Song line-up.

At last, that changes with 1959 and the Academy's pick for Best Original Song, the irresistibly charming "High Hopes," which Sinatra performs alongside child actor Eddie Hodges in Frank Capra's immensely underrated A Hole in the Head. The tune, which was later selected by John F. Kennedy to serve as the theme to his successful 1960 presidential campaign, is such a joy to listen to, catchy as can be, particularly with the adorable Hodges in the mix (Sinatra of course later did a solo version too, which admittedly isn't quite as fun). When I eventually hang up my hat in reviewing this category, I wholly expect "High Hopes" to rank awfully high on my ranked list of the winners (I have it at #3 for now).

As for the rest of the line-up, it's not a whole lot to write home about, though I've certainly encountered far worse in this category.

I like both Johnny Mathis' "The Best of Everything," from the Peyton Place-wannabe of the same name (which isn't terribly notable beyond a great late supporting turn by Joan Crawford), and Marty Robbins' "The Hanging Tree," from the fine Karl Malden-Gary Cooper western of the same name. In another, weaker year, I could perhaps see one of these two emerging as a contender for the win, but they ain't "High Hopes."

Danny Kaye's "The Five Pennies" is a pleasant but very slight lullaby, written by wife/composer Sylvia Fine. The fifth nominee, "Strange Are the Ways of Love," from the Patrick Wayne (John's son) vehicle The Young Land, is simply wretched, even though it's from the same brilliant team that produced the great theme from High Noon, which I actually picked for the win in its year.

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. "High Hopes," A Hole in the Head (1959)
  4. "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
  5. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  6. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  7. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  8. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  9. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon (1952)
  10. "Secret Love," Calamity Jane (1953)
  11. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  12. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  13. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  14. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  15. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  16. "All the Way," The Joker Is Wild (1957)
  17. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  18. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  19. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  20. "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
  21. "Three Coins in the Fountain," Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
  22. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  23. "Gigi," Gigi (1958)
  24. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  25. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  26. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)

1958 Best Original Song - Gigi? Seriously, Academy?

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WON: "Gigi," Gigi

SHOULD'VE WON: "A Certain Smile," A Certain Smile

Ah, 1958, the year of incredible motion pictures like Vertigo, Touch of Evil and Indiscreet. Yes, the Academy did largely ignore those three at the Oscars that year, but they did at least recognize the likes of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Separate Tables, both very strong films as well. Yet, in spite of this sea of fine cinema, the Academy had to go and get all ga-ga over Gigi, Vincente Minnelli's lovely-looking, yet dull-as-dishwater musical romcom, for the Best Picture and Director prizes.

The film's luck extended to Best Original Song as well, where the title tune, "performed" by Louis Jourdan (I say "performed," given he's really more talking than actually singing here), emerged triumphant. Like the rest of Gigi, "Gigi" is nice to look at - all of the scenery surrounding Jourdan in this scene is gorgeously shot - but the song on its own terms isn't anything in the slightest to write home about.

Thing is, the rest of '58 Best Original Song isn't terribly noteworthy either.

For me, it's pretty much a three-way jumpball among "A Certain Smile" (performed by Johnny Mathis), "Almost in Your Arms" (Sam Cooke) and "To Love and Be Loved" (Frank Sinatra) - three vocal legends, though none of the songs really quite pop. I give the Mathis track the slight edge over Sinatra's - there is a nice aura of Technicolor romance to it, even if, like a lot of the Mathis discography, it borders on the overly sentimental. The Cooke track, while charming, is a little too short to leave much of an impact.

The remaining tune, "A Very Precious Love," is performed by Gene Kelly in Marjorie Morningstar (not exactly among the more memorable Natalie Wood vehicles), yet doesn't leave much of any impression at all. Doris Day later covered it to greater success but, to be fair, Doris Day could sing a phone book and make it sound marvelous.

Note that with the exception of the Gigi team (Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner), all of this year's composers were also nominees in '57 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. "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
  4. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  5. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  6. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  7. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  8. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon (1952)
  9. "Secret Love," Calamity Jane (1953)
  10. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  11. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  12. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  13. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  14. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  15. "All the Way," The Joker Is Wild (1957)
  16. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  17. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  18. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  19. "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
  20. "Three Coins in the Fountain," Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
  21. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  22. "Gigi," Gigi (1958)
  23. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  24. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  25. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)

1957 Best Original Song - The Unsinkable Debbie Reynolds

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WON: "All the Way," The Joker Is Wild

SHOULD'VE WON: "Tammy," Tammy and the Bachelor

While the 1957 Oscars found the Academy otherwise pitting against one another the hard-nosed likes of The Bridge on the River Kwai, 12 Angry Men and Witness for the Prosecution for top prizes, '57 Best Original Song could not possibly be a more lovey-dovey affair.

Here is a line-up stacked with love ballads, performed by the iconic likes of Frank Sinatra (on the winning "All the Way"), Debbie Reynolds ("Tammy"), Johnny Mathis ("Wild Is the Wind"), Vic Damone ("An Affair to Remember") and Pat Boone ("April Love"). It's not difficult to picture this famous fivesome taking an act on the road back in the day.

When it comes to romantic cheese like this, the kind that sends molasses running down your ear lobes upon listening, there can be the nostalgic and enjoyable (if perhaps in a guilty pleasure sort of way) and there can also be the intolerably sweet. In this particular category, though, all five tunes fall somewhere in the middle, none especially unforgettable and none (thankfully) so saccharin they send the blood sugar rising.

My favorite of the bunch would have to be Reynolds' "Tammy," from the warm and underrated Tammy and the Bachelor, which paired the wonderful Reynolds against a young and immensely charming Leslie Nielsen. The song itself isn't all that noteworthy - it's really kind of a middle-of-the-road effort from the Ray Evans-Jay Livingston team - but Reynolds' delivery is so moving and pitch-perfect, and watching her sing the tune in that glorious Technicolor is some real movie magic.

I also like Sinatra's "All the Way" and Mathis' "Wild Is the Wind" but there's no doubt both artists have done much, much better and more interesting work in their careers. I suppose I'd give the Mathis tune the edge of the two, given it does nicely evoke memories of the solid Anna Magnani-Anthony Quinn picture, while the Sinatra song just kind of reeks of Sinatra album filler, albeit listenable filler.

A bit less successful are the remaining two tracks. I love An Affair to Remember, yet diving into this category, I couldn't recall in the slightest the picture's theme song - turns out, that shouldn't be terribly surprising, for while Damone's vocal is decent, the tune doesn't have much of a hook and just comes off rather overbaked and hyperbolic...it lacks the subtlety of the film it's featured in. As for "April Love," like everything else Pat Boone ever laid his fingerprints on, it's generic and undistinguished as can be. Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" certainly should have taken one of these two slots.

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. "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
  4. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  5. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  6. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  7. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  8. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon (1952)
  9. "Secret Love," Calamity Jane (1953)
  10. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  11. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  12. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  13. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  14. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  15. "All the Way," The Joker Is Wild (1957)
  16. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  17. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  18. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  19. "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
  20. "Three Coins in the Fountain," Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
  21. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  22. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  23. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  24. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)