And the Oscar for Best Original Song goes to…
Over dinner before last night’s gig, I started to leaf through this book which I brought out with me (or rather, that V brought over with her, among other belongings that I’d requested):
It’s the sort of book which lends itself to being ‘leafed through’, too - a history of the Great American Songbook, or more specifically, of the men and women who wrote those songs.
Looking things up in the index, I started with a random song which I’m singing right now (well, not right now, obviously. They wouldn’t stand for that sort of thing in the Executive Lounge): ‘Cheek To Cheek’ by Irving Berlin. I discovered that it was nominated for the Best Original Song at the Oscars in 1935, but lost out to ‘Lullaby Of Broadway’ by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. A fact which apparently annoyed Berlin no end, as if it had been 1994, it would certainly have beaten ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’ from The Lion King.
Learning this interesting jazz factoid, I then looked up ‘Oscars’ in the index - and decided to change my setlist for last night’s gig to make sure that it included a few songs which had won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. What with yesterday being the day of the Oscars, and all that.
It turned out to be a jolly good wheeze… I even got members of the (albeit small, Monday-night) audience to guess in which year the said songs won their Oscars. In the end, I did ‘Secret Love’ (1953), ‘Moon River’ (1961) and ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ (1936), as well as Berlin’s near-miss ‘Cheek To Cheek’.
I failed to include ‘Arthur’s Theme’ (1981), ‘Flashdance’ (1983) and ‘The Theme From Shaft‘ (1971), though all three were, naturally, tempting.
(PS. And if you’re as geeky as I am, then you might find this just as fascinating as I did.)
February 26th, 2008 at 5.11pm
I challenge you to 1964 and 1967
February 26th, 2008 at 5.55pm
I am and I did
‘Let the River Run’ from 1988 would be a good one.
The one from 1984 which is the punchline to the joke about ‘A jazz chord’ was news to me that it was an Oscar winner.
Is it me or are all the songs from recent years completely unknown ?
February 26th, 2008 at 6.23pm
The one from 1964 was good enough for a certain Mr Coltrane.
February 26th, 2008 at 7.20pm
what, Robbie Coltrane did ‘Chim Chim-eree’?
February 26th, 2008 at 7.27pm
*Suddenly gets an image in my head of Robbie C doing a Dick Van Dyke chimney sweep type patter with authentic mockney accent*
Er….no
I was thinking of another Coltrane who also did ‘My Favourite Things’ (not an Oscar winner)
February 26th, 2008 at 7.32pm
John - can you please explain the Stevie joke? and maybe the ones from recent years are unknown to you, as to me, because we don’t have small children and therefore don’t go and see animated films that often. (that said, I loved Monsters Inc, though for the life of me can’t remember that song).
February 26th, 2008 at 7.42pm
Ah well.. it goes like this.
A pianist is playing in a bar and a drunk comes up to him and says ‘Play a Jazz chord’. So he obliges and plays D7+9+5. The drunk goes ‘No No play a Jazz chord’ so he then decides to play Bbma7+11/A(cool sound btw).
The drunk then goes ‘No No , play a Jazz chord’. The pianist then gives up and says ‘What do you mean?’
The drunk then goes ‘A jazz chord to say I loved you’ in true club stylee.
I guess that’s the reason why the songs are not really known. (Yep, Monstors Inc was great)
February 26th, 2008 at 7.44pm
ha! love it. in a geeky way.