Oscar music madness
by Constance Droganes
Winning melodies and worthy composers ring in some tuneful trivia for your next Oscar party.
Lingering in our heads long after those big-screen scenes have faded, Oscar melodies - and the talents who have created them - have stayed with movie buffs throughout eight decades of cinematic history.
We’ve hummed them in the shower, discoed away the night to them and cried into our hankies as Oscar’s best tearjerkers played on. They’re just the tuneful tidbits to give 2007’s Oscar ballot losers some sweet-sounding revenge.
Listen up!
2
Of the three new regular categories that were added to the Oscars in 1934, two of them were for Best Music Score and Best Song.
17
Legendary composer Miklós Rózsa received 17 Academy Award nominations between 1940 and 1961 – 16 for Best Music Scores (among them “The Thief of Bagdad” (1940) and “Ivanhoe” (1952)), and one for Best Song. Rózsa won Oscars for his scores for “Spellbound,” (1945), “A Double Life” (1947) and “Ben-Hur” (1959).
1937
Seven decades later it’s still hard to believe that Harry Owen’s sappy “Sweet Leilani" from “Waikiki Wedding” won a Best Song Oscar. But that it did, defeating the timeless classic, “They Can’t Take That Way From Me,” penned by George and Ira Gershwin for the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical “Shall We Dance.”
1996
Madonna failed to nab a Best Actress nomination for “Evita.” But that didn’t stop her from performing “You Must Love Me,” the movie’s Oscar-winning song, at the 1996 Academy Awards.
2
For over half a century Franz Waxman was the only composer to have won the Academy Award for Best Score in two successive years. He nabbed an Oscar in 1950 for Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” and in 1951 for George Stevens’ “A Place in the Sun.”
1936
Famed composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold won Oscar gold in 1936 for his score for “Anthony Adverse.” He nabbed his second Oscar for Best Score for “The Adventure of Robin Hood,” 1938’s rousing Errol Flynn classic.
45
Composing great John Williams (“Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial”) has received 45 Academy Award nominations, most recently for “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2005) and “Munich” (2005). That figure makes Williams the most nominated living person in Oscar history.
3
Three composers have won Oscars two years in a row: Franz Waxman for “Sunset Boulevard” (1950) and “A Place in the Sun” (1951), Alan Menken for “Beauty and The Beast” (1991) and “Aladdin” (1992) and Gustavo Santaolalla for “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) and “Babel” (2006).
2000
Chinese composer Tan Dun achieved international acclaim in 2000 for his Oscar-winning score for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Dun’s score went on to win a BAFTA and Grammy.
1
A three-time Oscar nominee, composer John Corigliano won the Best Score prize for 1998’s lush musical epic, “The Red Violin.”
Oscar-winning theme songs
Eighty years of classic screen time lingers on with this selection of golden Oscar tunes.
1936. “The Way You Look Tonight,” from “Swing Time.”
1939. “Over the Rainbow,” from “The Wizard of Oz.”
1940. “When You Wish Upon A Star,” from “Pinocchio."
1942. “White Christmas,” from “Holiday Inn.”
1950. “Mona Lisa," from “Captain Carey, U.S.A.”
1958. “Gigi,” from the musical “Gigi.”
1961. “Moon River,” from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
1968. “The Windmills of Your Mind,” from “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
1971. “Shaft,” from “Shaft.”
1978. “Last Dance,” from “Thank God It’s Friday.”
1983. “Flashdance ... What a Feeling,” from “Flashdance.”
1986. “Take My Breath Away,” from “Top Gun.”
1994. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” from “The Lion King.”
