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.
I watched the show and not a single song was chosen from the Music Man -- - 76 Trombones should've been in the top 100.
You can see the entire list at:
http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/songs.aspx
"Puttin' on the Ritz" from Young Frankenstein :-)
Oh yeah, and theme from "Shaft"
Where was "Seventy Six Trombones" -- or anything else from "The Music Man"?
Over the rainbow is a great song. I especially like the version combined with "what a wonderful world" by IZ from Hawaii accompanied only by a ukelele :o) This version was also in the movie "Finding Forester".
Hehe, 89 and 38 respectively..just looked at the list ;-)
Hey! I forgot about that one. That IS a classic!
WHAT????
No mention of "Rock and Roll High School" by the Ramones?
(As enjoyed in the movie of the same name)
These people have NO credibility!
OK, here's an odd one, but is both surprisingly good and historically significant, and everyone knows it and if they see it will say, "Oh, yeah":
"A Tisket, A Tasket" by Ella Fitzgerald in an old Abbot & Costello movie.
It seems they were only including songs with lyrics. I didn't hear any instrumentals. So they didn't include instrumental movie scores. If they had, there's no way they could leave out something like the Theme from the Magnificent Seven, Pink Panther, etc...
I realize all of the songs on the list have lyrics. My question is why are some of the songs performed by characters and some just part of the soundtrack? If they include both, then they should include instrumentals from sountracks. And then you'd have to wonder why there are no John Williams songs on the list as well.
It's not like the songs were rated based on their importance or poignance to the story being told either. In such event how could they omit the closing scenes from Dr. Strangelove, or the opening to 2001 Space Odyssey? Plus I view the absence of any Beetles songs from Help or A Hard Day's Night a travesty when songs like Moon River, Windmills Of My Mind and Born To Be Wild are included.
And let's face it what about films like Woodstock, Tommy, The Wall, Purple Rain or The Song Remain The Same? Surely some of the classic songs performed in these movies merit mention.
I agree with your criticizing the lack of classic rock, but as for scores, the topic is best songs, not best scores. Mancini's score is ALMOST singable, but if you can't sing it, it ain't a song.
And, no, Mr. Murray, this is not a song.
STAR wars, nothing but STAR wars!
I agree with you. These "Top 100" lists are usually not very comprehensive. They're designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. They included a lot of popular songs that would appeal to a wide audience in a 3 hour TV special. I wouldn't view it as anything close to definitive.
I could never sit all the way through "Annie Hall." Each sound bite was amusing, but it was just 500 mildly amusing jokes, one after the other. No builup, no rhythm, no direction, no point: The comedic equivalent to a Wilson Phillips album. Did it somehow turn gay at the end, or are you just associating it with Lower-east-side, granola-munching, evian-drinking "villagers"? It seemed more metrosexual than homosexual. Even metrosexuals don't like Garland and Streissand; they jus don't hate people who love them.
Close enough.
Every song from "Rock'n'Roll High School" or "The Harder They Come" beats the pants off Stayin Alive.
Feelings
Morris Albert
Music & Lyrics : Morris Albert
Feelings, nothing more than feelings,
trying to forget my feelings of love.
Teardrops rolling down on my face,
trying to forget my feelings of love.
How could they have left off "In The City" from the Warriors?
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