Oscars!

This week Tony and I hit the red carpet! In honour of the Academy Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles on March 15th, we heard some of the best music that the world of film has offered – as judged by the Academy over the years. Our editorial segment this week featured a selection of songs that won the Oscar for Best Original Song, from Bacarach to Barbra Streisand, and Jai Ho to Judas and the Black Messiah…

Raindrops Keep Fallin’

Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. The film is based loosely on fact, and tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy (played by Paul Newman), and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the “Sundance Kid” (played by Robert Redford). Raindrops won Bacharach the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and his soundtrack won Best Original Score. The single, as recorded by B.J. Thomas, went to number one in the U.S., Canada, and Norway, and reached number 38 in the UK Singles Chart. Ray Stevens and Bob Dylan were both offered the opportunity to record the single, but declined. Robert Redford initially disagreed with the inclusion of Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head in the film, arguing it didn’t match the tone; he later saw “how wrong [he] was”. The song was used later in Spider-Man 2 (2004), and in the outro sequence of The Simpsons episode 16 season 4 “Duffless”, as a direct reference to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

A Star Is Born

Evergreen was the theme song from the 1976 film A Star Is Born, a musical romantic drama film directed by Frank Pierson. The screenplay was written by Pierson, and husband-and-wife team John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion, and stars Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. Streisand plays Esther, an unkown singer, who meets John, an established rock star (Kristofferson); the two fall in love, as her career ascends while his declines. The 1976 film was in fact a remake of the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor and James Mason, which was in turn was adapted in 1954 as a musical starring Judy Garland and James Mason. The Man That Got Away, the theme song from Garland’s 1954 film, was nominated for Best Original Song at the 27th Academy Awards but lost to Three Coins In A Fountain. Evergreen, however, won the award, and Streisand became the first woman to be honoured as a composer. The song also won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year, the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, and became Streisand’s second number one single in the U.S..

Shallow was released in 2018 as the lead single to the soundrack from the 2018 remake of A Star Is Born, starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. The song was written by Gaga with Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt, and became the second A Star Is Born song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. Shallow also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Song, and Grammy awards for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Song Written for Visual Media. The song has received over three billion streams on Spotify alone, and topped the charts in more than twenty countries, including the U.S. and the UK.

Fame & Pocahontas

Fame by Irene Cara was written by Michael Gore (music) and Dean Pitchford (lyrics) as the theme song to the 1980 film of the same name. Fame is an American teen musical drama directed by Alan Parker and written by Christopher Gore. The film is set in New York City and chronicles the lives of students attending The High School of Performing Arts. Irene Cara played Coco Hernandez in the film, and Fame was her debut single as a recording artist. The song received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and went to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on the Billboard dance chart. Fame won the Golden Globe for and the Academy Award – where it beat Dolly Parton‘s 9 to 5 – for Best Original Song. The song was re-released in 1982 on the back of a TV series based on the original film, and topped the charts in several countries including the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the U.K.

Colours of The Wind from Walt Disney Picture’s 1995 film Pocahontas won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. The film is animated musical historical drama film loosely based on life of Powhatan woman Pocahontas and arrival of English settlers from the Virginia Company. The music for Pocahontas was written by Alan Menken (music), who has contributed music to roughly 15 Disney films, and Stephen Schwartz (lyrics), who went on to write the 2002 musical Wicked. The lyrics to Colours of the Wind were inspired partly by words supposedly written to President Pierce in 1855 by Chief Seattle of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples, though the provenance of the letter is disputed. Schwartz has pointed to one passage in particular:

“The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers”

The song was originally recorded by Judy Kuhn in her role as Pocahontas’ singing voice, and was also recorded by Vanessa Williams, whose version plays during the film’s end credits. Williams’ rendition became a top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and the film’s soundtrack album displaced Michael Jackson’s HIStory as No. 1 album on the Billboard Top 200.

Slumdog Millionaire & Judas and the Black Messiah

Jai Ho was composed by A.R. Rahman for Danny Boyle‘s 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire. The film is loosley based on the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup, and stars Dev Patel in his film debut as Jamal Malik, an 18 year old from the Juhu slums of Mumbai who appears as a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, a Hindi Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Jai Ho won the Academy Award for Best Original Song – where Rahman beat himself as his other Slumdog Millionaire song O…Saya was also nominated – and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The song’s lyrics were written by Indian poet and lyricist Gulzar, and are a combination of Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi; “Jai Ho” is a Hindi phrase which translates to “Victory ensues.”

Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 biographical historical crime drama film directed and produced by Shaka King, about the betrayal of Fred Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya), chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in late 1960s Chicago, by William O’Neal (played by LaKeith Stanfield), an FBI informant. Fight For You was written by H.E.R., who co-composed and co-produced it with D’Mile, with additional writing contribution from Tiara Thomas. The song won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, as well as the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Song. Fight For You received three nominations at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, including for Song of the Year, and won for Best Traditional R&B Performance.

16th-note Guitar Riffs…

Our soundslike this week looked at the prevalence of 16th-note guitar riffs, and included: Bring On The Night by The Police (1979), Run Like Hell by Pink Floyd (1979), Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks (1981), Eye of the Tiger by Survivor (1982), and Bootylicious by Destiny’s Child (2001). All coincidence, of course!

Oscars Quiz

For our quiz this week, you heard famous songs from films that won the Oscar for Best Picture – guess either the artist and song, or the film!

As always, find the show and blog at joebennett.net/5live, with occasional Instagram extras at @joebennettmusicology. With a new show comes a new Spotify mega-playlist, which contains all songs featured on the show:

And you can still listen to our old mega-playlist here.

Words: Joe Bennett, John Pierce O’Reilly

Audio production: Joe Bennett, Rafi Waters