The Best Film Songs Of All Time Blue Moon ( Manhattan Melodram a, 1934) “Blue Moon” evolved as a song from the MGM soundtrack-writing syst...
The Best Film Songs Of All Time
Blue Moon (Manhattan Melodrama, 1934)
“Blue Moon” evolved as a song from the MGM soundtrack-writing system, source of some of the best film songs in their time; Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tailored the eventual finished version for a Clark Gable film called Manhattan Melodrama. The beautiful lyrics – “Blue moon/You saw me standing alone/Without a dream in my heart/Without a love of my own” – have been sung down the years by most of the greatest singers of popular music, including Elvis Presley, Mel Tormé, Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald. The classic love song was also featured in a tribute album called Blue Moon: Rodgers And Hart Covered By The Supremes.
Cheek To Cheek (Top Hat, 1935)
Russian-Jewish émigré Irving Berlin wrote “Cheek To Cheek” in a single day, on demand, for the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie Top Hat. The song lights up a memorable scene during which a tuxedoed Astaire declares his love for Rogers (dancing elegantly in a feathery white gown). The gorgeous words – “And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak” – and clever dance routine make this one of cinema’s most romantic moments. The song has also been covered numerous times down the years, including by jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on their 1956 album Ella And Louis.
Ol’ Man River (Show Boat, 1936)
For a tune to really make its mark among the best film songs it sometimes has to find the right singer. The 1927 Broadway drama Show Boat featured Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s song performed by actors, and, a year later, Paul Whiteman (with Bing Crosby on vocals) had a minor hit with it. But when it was sung in the 1936 film version by Paul Robeson, his moving baritone voice – and edgier interpretation – took the song to a new level.
Somewhere Over The Rainbow (The Wizard Of Oz, 1939)
Some songs are the perfect vehicle for a performer’s interpretation and improvisation, and certain numbers are remembered more for the singer than the writer. If you mention “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” people are more likely to think of Judy Garland’s soaring version for the 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz than the gorgeous work of composers Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. The song was almost cut from the film, though, because MGM thought the opening Kansas sequence was too long. Thankfully, it was left in, and “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” earned its place among history’s best film songs when it won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. There have been numerous cover versions since, from artists as diverse as Eric Clapton, John Martyn, and Ariana Grande.
When You Wish Upon A Star (Pinocchio, 1940)
Cliff Edwards, a middle-aged singer known as Ukulele Ike, voices the crow in Dumbo, but his voice is better known for singing the wonderfully sentimental “When You Wish Upon A Star” for the Disney classic Pinocchio. The song was written by two giants of film music – Leigh Harline (“Whistle While You Work”) and Ned Washington (“High Noon”). Their song for Edwards became a jazz standard, covered by Dave Brubeck and Louis Armstrong, among others. A recent version by Gregory Porter is featured on the Verve album Jazz Loves Disney.
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (Buck Privates, 1941)
Who would have thought that a song written for an Abbott and Costello comedy would become a wartime classic? Patty, Maxene, and Laverne Andrews based their early style on the close harmonizing of The Boswell Sisters, and the public loved it. The Andrews Sisters’ song about the boogie-woogie bugle boy of Company B survived World War II and was a hit again for Bette Midler in 1973.
As Time Goes By (Casablanca, 1942)
“As Time Goes By” was actually written by Herman Hupfeld for a short-lived 30s Broadway musical, Everybody’s Welcome, but took on a life of its own as one of Hollywood’s best film songs, becoming embedded in the popular musical psyche after it was sung by pianist Dooley Wilson in the Humphrey Bogart-Ingrid Bergman movie Casablanca. The same old story, and fight for love and glory, has echoed down the decades since, in versions by Frank Sinatra, Julie London, and even Bob Dylan.
White Christmas (Holiday Inn, 1942)
Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” was on an album of songs from the film Holiday Inn, and the lyrics resonated with thousands of American troops away on duty in the Second World War. “White Christmas” earned songwriter Irving Berlin a 1943 Academy Award and, well beyond being one of the best film songs of all time, it has become the biggest-selling single of all time, racking up sales of 50 million. Crosby’s version – which took only 18 minutes to record – is definitive, but in the decades since, numerous stars have had tried their Yuletide hand, including Bob Marley, Willie Nelson, and U2.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Meet Me in St Louis, 1944)
This started as a dark Christmas song, but when Judy Garland complained that some of Hugh Martin’s lyrics were uncomfortably bleak, he altered them and “Have yourself a merry little Christmas/It may be your last/Next year we may all be living in the past” became “Have yourself a merry little Christmas/Let your heart be light/Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.” The lyrical trick worked, and the song, from the classic Christmas movie Meet Me In St Louis, has become a standard. Among the numerous cover versions are those by Carpenters, Mel Tormé, and, more recently, by Tony Hadley.
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