The Best Song Podcast

Episode 54: If Love Can See Us Through (1986)

Academy voters increasingly became aware of the synergy between Hollywood and the music industry, voting for a Billboard #1 song for its Oscar for the past five years. Would that continue with the nominated songs from 1986? Two number-one songs were in contention, including a song performed by two mice and another for a sultry love scene for an action movie. Host Jeff Commings tells the stories behind the five nominated songs on this episode of The Best Song Podcast.

Episode 53: I Have Learned to Let You Go (1985)

After the historic list of Oscar-nominated songs of 1984, the five nominees for 1985 had a lot to live up to. On this episode of The Best Song Podcast, host Jeff Commings tells of Lionel Richie's double nomination in the same year as his successful "We Are the World" composition, and the popular movie songs that missed out on a nomination.

Episode 52: I Just Wanna Cheer (1984)

Dean Pitchford returns to The Best Song Podcast to talk about bringing the 1984 movie Footloose to the big screen, and finding the best collaborators to write the songs from the hit soundtrack. That includes working with Kenny Loggins, who wrote and recorded the title song under very interesting circumstances. Host Jeff Commings talks with Pitchford about that Oscar-nominated song as well as "Let's Hear It for the Boy" and working with Deniece Williams. The lives of many of the nominated songs after the Academy Awards were tainted by lawsuits, but others were boosted by new lives on the Broadway stage.

Episode 51: The Ice-Blue Line of Insanity (1983)

The 50th anniversary of the Original Song Academy Award featured two songs from the mega-popular movie Flashdance, which re-ignited the movie soundtrack craze, and two songs from Barbra Streisand's directorial debut Yentl. The other nominated song really did feel like a fifth wheel alongside these four songs, and we'll learn more about the journeys the songwriters took to get them out into the world on this episode.

Episode 50: All We Have Is Here and Now (1982)

Alan and Marilyn Bergman made history with their Oscar nominations for original song of 1982, becoming the first people to earn three song nominations in one year from three different films. One of those was Luciano Pavarotti's first (and last) movie role, and another was a love song for the biggest comedy of 1982. Learn more about these nominated songs, and the other two that offered some tight competition for the Academy Award.

Episode 49: Play For Me (1981)

The star power among the Oscar-nominated songwriters for 1981 was very high. Lionel Richie, Christopher Cross, Carole Bayer Sager, and Randy Newman were just a few of the top names looking to become Oscar winners for their work writing songs for the movies. Host Jeff Commings tells the stories behind creating these hit songs, including Lionel Richie's tale of trying to get Diana Ross into the studio to sing "Endless Love."

Episode 48: Baby, Hold Me Tight (1980)

Dean Pitchford joins the show to talk about writing the Oscar-nominated title song from the 1980 movie Fame. In addition to his recollections of the process he and composer Michael Gore took to arrive at the global hit song, Pitchford talks about the future recording star who helped add a "hook" to the song, and why Dolly Parton was his song's biggest competition.

Episode 47: Reaching Out to Touch You (1979)

Kermit the Frog's film debut brought Oscar winner Paul Williams his final Oscar nomination, writing the classic song "The Rainbow Connection" with Kenny Ascher. Host Jeff Commings shares Williams' thoughts about the meaning of the wistful lyrics and why Paul Williams was not able to continue his work in the 1980s. Other Oscar winners in contention for the 1979 Original Song Oscar were Henry Mancini and Marvin Hamlisch, both supplying sentimental love ballads that didn't hold a candle to another popular movie song that was ineligible for the award, thanks to the songwriter's honesty.