Oh me, Oh my... Over the Rainbow still rocks / File
Posted on 06/23/2004 7:33:12 AM PDT by yankeedame
Over the Rainbow top song
By David Germain in Los Angeles
June 23, 2004
THERE'S no song like Over the Rainbow - the wistful ditty sung by Kansas farm girl Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz has a topped the American Film Institute's list of 100 best movie songs.
In second place on the list, released today, is the song that sparked a thousand clichés, As Time Goes By from Casablanca. In third place was the title tune from Singin' in the Rain.
Over the Rainbow, sung by Judy Garland in the 1939 musical fantasy, was picked as the top song in US cinema by about 1,500 actors, filmmakers, writers, critics and others in Hollywood.
"It deserves it. It's one of the great, great songs. Judy Garland, the emotion in that song. It gives me chills whenever I hear it," said songwriter Burt Bacharach.
Mr Bacharach was represented on the list for co-writing Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head (No 23) from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) (No 79) from Arthur.
In 2001, Garland's Over the Rainbow (and Bing Crosby's White Christmas ) also topped the 365 Songs of the Century selected by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America.
Two songs each from The Sound of Music (My Favourite Things at No 64 and Do Re Mi at No 88) and Singin' in the Rain (Make 'Em Laugh at No 49 and Good Morning at No 72) both made the list. West Side Story also landed three songs: Somewhere (No 20), America (No 35) and Tonight (No 59).
Chosen from 400 nominees, the list was announced in the CBS television special AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Songs, the institute's latest countdown to promote US film history.
The show's host was John Travolta, star of Saturday Night Fever and Grease, whose Summer Nights came in at No 70.
"A list like this really drives people back to rediscover or discover these movies," Jean Picker Firstenburg, the institute's director, said.
"It's about older generations revisiting them and younger generations finding them for the first time."
Past specials presented such lists as the best 100 American movies, comedies, screen legends and love stories. AFI leaders had been mulling a list of best movie songs for years.
"It's an idea we've had floating around since the beginning," said Bob Gazzale, who produces the AFI specials. "Movies and music are so obviously linked at the heart, really."
"I think this list is about music that has made its way into daily lives, rather than an assessment of what's great," said Jennifer Warnes, who sang two duets that made the list, Up Where We Belong (No 75) from An Officer and a Gentleman and (I've Had) The Time of My Life (No 86) from Dirty Dancing.
"The reason why my songs made it there is that they're used. I still hear Up Where we Belong when I'm at the store buying frozen peas, and it makes me happier to be buying frozen peas."
The earliest song to make the list was Isn't It Romantic (No 73), sung by Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald in 1932's Love Me Tonight. The newest came from 2002 with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger's rendition of All That Jazz (No 98) from Chicago and Eminem's Lose Yourself (No 93) from 8 Mile.
The AFI's Top Ten Songs
1. Over the Rainbow, The Wizard of Oz, 1939. 2. As Time Goes by, Casablanca, 1942.
3. Singin' in the Rain, Singin' in the Rain, 1952.
4. Moon River, Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961.
5. White Christmas, Holiday Inn, 1942.
6. Mrs. Robinson, The Graduate, 1967.
7. When You Wish Upon a Star, Pinocchio, 1940.
8. The Way We Were, The Way We Were, 1973.
9. Stayin' Alive, Saturday Night Fever, 1977.
10. The Sound of Music, The Sound of Music, 1965.
Marti Dibergi: "This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to prompt the question, `What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn't he have rested on that day too?'"
In the top 100 Julie Andrews sang four, Judy Garland sang four, and Barbra S sang three. Judy actually sang 3.5 since one of "her" songs is "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" in which the Munchkins do most of the singing...
"Sh*t Sandwich"
I dunno--Even if "Nobody does it better", that song never really did it for me. I think part of my objection is that SWLM was the first Bond movie with a sung opening title song that didn't synchronize the appearance of the title with its mention in the song (of the first fourteen pictures, eleven had opening-title songs, all but one of which included the movie title (Octopussy was the exception); of those ten films whose opening title songs included the movie title, SWLM was the only one which did not synchronize the title's appearance with its mention.
Fair question. I would posit that a well-designed list should require that a song either be (1) sung or lip-synched by a person or character on-screen [nb: some James Bond title songs like 'For Your Eyes Only' would qualify; some not], or (2) be audible to a character on-screen. The inclusion of a sound in a movie's soundtrack is very different from its material inclusion in a picture.
"Under the Sea" was a great song, but I'd give a slight edge to "Kiss the Girl" for its greater degree of dramatic integration. The KtG scene is simply 100% pure brilliance.
True. Due to a variety show in college, I just know "Under the Sea" much better. But I'll give you that Kiss the Girl was a better part of the movie.
Local ads (for a Hawaiian record company) have been billing it as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow from the movie '50 First Dates' named as best movie song" (The Israel Kamakawiwoole version also played on the episode of ER where Mark Greene kicked the bucket).
Interesting
If you really wanna hear “Laura” find a CD with the great jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown , who died at 26 in 1956, playing it. One of the albums where you can hear it is called “With Strings”.
If I’m not mistaken that’s the movie a friend of mine from Joey Dee and the Starliters was in, PLUS, the great Zohra Lampert at the age of 23 or 24, my favorite actress.
BTT
BUMP
It’s my favorite all time song.
John
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