This is a great week for movie buffs and for lovers of great Oscar music!
The 1934 Oscars was the first to have a category for music. At that point, the only music categories were music “scoring” and best original song. But the Academy had to change with the times. By the 1940s, the music category was further divided up and included “scoring” nominees in both best score of a 1) dramatic/comedy picture and 2) best score of a musical.
1941: Best Original Score went to the music from Dumbo!Then, as musicals became less popular, the Academy changed the categories again. Several times, in fact. At one point, there were more than 40 nominees in any one of the musical categories.
And, though John Williams might be the most prolific music composer that we know, he isn’t the one with the most wins. That honor would go to Alfred Newman who won his last Oscar in 1967 for scoring Camelot — the same year of Williams’s first nomination, for Valley of the Dolls. Newman was nominated 43 times and won nine best score Oscars; Williams has won five out of his 45 nominations.
Without further ado….listen to the video below and follow this list of the songs in the “official” Academy Awards song:
0:00 – “Hooray for Hollywood” by Richard A Whiting & Johnny Mercer
0:46 – “That’s Entertainment” by Arthur Schwartz & Howard Dietz
1:04 – “Theme from E.T.” by John Williams (Best Original Score, 1982)
1:25 – Theme from Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing by Sammy Fain & Paul Francis Webster (Best Original Score of Drama or Comedy, 1955)
1:39 – “Oklahoma” (from Oklahoma) by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, (Best Original Score of a Musical, 1955)
1:53 – “Take My Breath Away” (from Top Gun) by Giorgio Moroder/performed by Berlin (Best Original Song, 1986)
2:10 – Theme from Chariots of Fire by Vangelis (Best Score, 1981)
2:26 – Theme from Born Free (overlaps with Theme from Chariots of Fire) by John Barry & Don Black (Best Original Music Score, 1966)
2:40 – Theme from Around the World in 80 Days by Victor Young (Best Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, 1956)
2:56 – “Moon River” (from Breakfast at Tiffany’s) by Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer (Best Song, 1961)
3:03 – “Chim Chim Cher-ee” (from Mary Poppins) by Robert B & Richard M Sherman (Best Song, 1964)
3:20 – “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (from Arthur) by Christopher Cross, B. Bacharach, C. Sager & P. Allen (Best Song, 1981)
3:53 – “Ready To Take a Chance Again” (from Foul Play) by Barry Manilow (Nominated for Best Song, 1978)
4:03 – “Fame” (from Fame) by Michael Gore & Dean Pitchford, performed by Irene Cara (Best Song, 1980)
4:33 – “Flashdance… What a Feeling” (from Flashdance) by Giorgio Moroder, Keith Forsey & Irene Cara (Best Song, 1983)
4:47 – Theme from Rocky (Gonna Fly Now) by Bill Conti, Carol Connors & Ayn Robbins (Nominated for Best Song, 1976)
5:13 – March from Raiders of the Lost Ark by John Williams (Nominated for Best Score, 1981)
5:29 – Main Title from Star Wars by John Williams (Best Original Score, 1977)
5:51 – “That’s Entertainment” by Arthur Schwartz & Howard Dietz
6:18 – Repeat from beginning… (Why not because that was so much fun!)
See if you can’t pick out the Oscar music from the official Academy Awards “Hooray for Hollywood” song!
