The Best Song Podcast

Episode 37: Fields of Gold and Forests of the Night

Songwriters tried very, very hard to bring rock 'n' roll music into the Oscar nominees for Original Song in 1969, but the old guard strongly resisted and left off some now-classic tunes from the final list of five. Burt Bacharach and Hal David tried very hard to fight against the old ways of Hollywood, and managed to get a nomination for a classic movie song with a pop flavor. As you learn more about the five nominees, think about whether they were more worthy of a nomination than the ones host Jeff Commings offers up on this episode.

Episode 36: I Keep Them In Stitches

Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand originated two of the songs nominated for the Original Song Oscar in 1968: "Star" and "Funny Girl." The men who wrote those songs had some tough competition for the award that year, including a married couple who were making their big breakthrough with a seemingly nonsensical song that doesn't fit into any genre. Learn more on this episode with host Jeff Commings.

Episode 35: A Look That Time Can’t Erase

History was made in 1967, when Quincy Jones became the first Black man to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Jones was having a banner year, writing the nominated song "The Eyes of Love," the title song for the eventual Best Picture winner In the Heat of the Night, and the Oscar-nominated score for In Cold Blood. Though he would become a superstar producer in the next decade, Jones was still struggling to find popularity with the public. The other nominees for Original Song felt the same struggle, and we'll learn more about that on this episode of The Best Song Podcast. 

Episode 34: You’re No Longer On the Shelf

Though the British Invasion of pop songs took place two years earlier, British cinema was becoming popular in the mid-1960s thanks to London taking the theme of the Swinging '60s very literally. Two of the Oscar-nominated songs from 1966 are title songs about two sexually-charged Brits, while one of its Oscar competitors is a very innocent (and brief) tune by the prim and proper British lady (at least onscreen) Julie Andrews. And then there's a surprise hit song by two newbies to the Oscar race about lion cubs raised in Africa. Want to know more about these songs and the songwriters who created them? Listen to host Jeff Commings on this episode of The Best Song Podcast!

Episode 33: She’s the Devil

One year after the Beatles gave us a rock 'n' roll movie musical, Frenchman Michel Legrand gave us the first fully sung-through original movie musical with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. He and lyricist/director Jacques Demy set the world on fire with this candy-colored film that featured a moving Oscar-nominated song competing for the award with two comedy songs and a new tune from the popular duo of Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer. It's a very diverse group of songs that continued to highlight the changing tone of movie music in the 1960s. Learn more from host Jeff Commings on this exciting episode!

Episode 32: Wish You Were Here to Warm This Heart

Though 1964 was celebrated for the return of the original movie musical with the release of Mary Poppins, there was another movie release that set the world on fire with its revolutionary music. A Hard Day's Night was the film debut of the Beatles during their yearlong "invasion" in the United States. What is remarkable about 1964 as far as the Oscars is concerned is how none of the songs from the Beatles got an Original Song Oscar nomination. So, what was deemed better than the title song or "Can't Buy Me Love?" Host Jeff Commings will guide you through the list of five nominees on this episode.

Episode 31: Be a Happy Camper

Movie songs were on an upswing of popularity with the public after the success of "Moon River," but 1963 did not help that cause with a list of five Oscar-nominated songs that were not major hits. One of the songs came from a cringe-inducing Italian documentary, while another was from a Jackie Gleason movie that started as a musical but got many of the songs cut out as Hollywood continued to shy away from original movie musicals. Learn more about the nominated songs and their creators on this episode of The Best Song Podcast.

Episode 30: You Better Walk Humble

Film composers were starting to take over the duties of writing the music for movie songs in the 1960s, and that was evident in the list of Oscar-nominated songs from that year. Four of the five songs contain music by score composers instead of trained songwriters, which signaled the likely end of an era for the Hollywood songwriter. Sammy Fain was the only traditional song composer of the bunch, writing a song that competed with those written by Henry Mancini, Elmer Berstein, Bronislau Kaper, and Andre Previn. Who took home the Original Song Oscar statuette that year? Host Jeff Commings will tell you on this episode!