Awards

Since 1934, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has handed out an Oscar for best original song, and many of those now-iconic tunes have more than lived up to that golden title. It’s impossible to think of The Wizard of Oz without hearing “Over the Rainbow”; Dirty Dancing without singing “(I’ve Had) The Time of my Life”; or Pinocchio without humming “When You Wish Upon a Star.”

With musical heavy-hitters like Rihanna, David Byrne, Mitski and previous Oscar-winner Lady Gaga all in the running for best original song in 2023, whoever wins will be in awfully good company. (And, who knows? Maybe this will be the year that long-time nominee Diane Warren finally gets her flowers.) 

Whether it’s Billie Eilish becoming James Bond musical royalty in 2021 with “No Time to Die,” Eminem putting hip-hop on the Oscar map in 2002 with “Lose Yourself,” Bruce Springsteen bringing us all to tears in 1993 with the “Streets of Philadelphia,” Isaac Hayes making Oscar history as the first African-American to win the best original song category in 1971 for “Theme from Shaft” or Irving Berlin creating a perennial holiday classic in 1942 with “White Christmas,” these Academy Award winners have spanned generations — and made for one incredible, albeit wildly eclectic, soundtrack. 

In no particular order, here are the 15 greatest Oscar-winning songs of all-time. And if you don’t see your personal favorite listed here, well, no disrespect is intended. Unless, of course, that song landed on our list of the 15 worst Oscar-winning songs of all time. In that case, well, sorry.

“Over the Rainbow,” Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg from The Wizard of Oz

Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection

As timeless as they come. The legendary Judy Garland singing the splendid “Over the Rainbow” in The Wizard of Oz is pretty much the gold standard of movie magic. 

“Lose Yourself,” Eminem from 8 Mile

Eminem’s amped-up anthem made Oscar history back in 2002, becoming the first-ever hip-hop track to win an Academy Award for best original song. While other hip-hop artists have been able to take home Oscars since, none of them have paid homage to both mom’s spaghetti and Mekhi Pfifer. Listen here.

“Falling Slowly,” Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from Once

Basically every song from Once is Oscar-worthy (yep, even “Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy”), but “Falling Slowly” is the one that made everyone fall madly in love with the duo and their little movie (and eventually, Broadway show) that could. Listen here.

“Take My Breath Away,” Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock from Top Gun 

Image Credit: ©Paramount / courtesy Everett Collection

This soaring, synth-y ballad not only took Berlin all the way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, but to the dizzying heights of having performed a song that won an Academy Award (for songwriters Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock).

“Theme from Shaft,” Isaac Hayes from Shaft

The grooviest, funkiest and all-around coolest best original song winner not only made the Shaft soundtrack an essential record, but it made Oscar history when Isaac Hayes became the first African-American to win in this category. Don’t like it? Shut your mouth. Listen here.

“White Christmas,” Irving Berlin from Holiday Inn 

There are two best original song Oscar winners that became bona fide Christmastime essentials: “White Christmas” from 1942’s Holiday Inn and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from 1949’s Neptune’s Daughter. However, only one of these classics managed to remain an unproblematic fave. Listen here.

“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” Burt Bacharach and Hal David from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 

The incomparable Burt Bacharach earned five Oscar nominations and won twice in this category over the course of his career. Has there ever been a better song to get you out of a funk than this one? We’d be hard-pressed to find it. Listen here.

“Moon River,” Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer from Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection

Audrey Hepburn plucking her guitar and crooning out of her New York City window made its mark on cinema in 1961, and various covers (from Andy Williams to Frank Ocean) have kept it a pop culture staple over the years. Still, nothing beats the dreamy version seen in the film.

“Jai Ho,” A. R. Rahman and Guizar from Slumdog Millionaire 

Before Marvel movies were keeping people planted firmly in their seats as the credits rolled, Slumdog Millionaire had audiences dancing in the aisles to this Indian pop crowd-pleaser. (It’s also the only Oscar-winning song to date to get its very own treatment by The Pussycat Dolls.) Listen here.

“The Way You Look Tonight,” Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields from Swing Time

If anyone could make audiences feel like they were floating on air during the Great Depression, it was Fred Astaire. One of the most romantic songs ever written, if you haven’t heard one of its many iterations on the big screen, you’ve most certainly heard it at a wedding or two hundred. Listen here.

“(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” by Franke Previte, John DeNicola & Donald Markowitz from Dirty Dancing

Image Credit: ©Vestron Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

Nobody puts Baby in a corner. In fact, Baby stars in one of the most satisfying movie finales ever set to ’80s pop perfection. 

“Last Dance,” Paul Jabara from Thank God It’s Friday

Sure, it’s from the worst movie on this list by a mile, but this disco staple — performed by dancefloor queen Donna Summer — has been telling party-going night owls to call it an evening since 1978. Listen here.

“When You Wish Upon a Star,” Leigh Harline and Ned Washington from Pinocchio

Disney is no stranger to winning in this category, but it’s hard to top the OG recipient: “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Perhaps the song still most associated with the movie studio to this day, this Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards) tune has been packing a big punch since 1940. Listen here.

“Streets of Philadelphia,” Bruce Springsteen from Philadelphia

Neil Young’s “Philadelphia” (which was also nominated that year) may actually pack the bigger emotional wallop in the 1993 drama, but you can’t argue with the power of The Boss and the aching sense of hope lost in this powerful ballad. Listen here.

“Shallow,” Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando & Andrew Wyatt from A Star Is Born 

Image Credit: Courtesy Photo

When you think of “Shallow” and its big night at the 2019 Oscars, it’s all but impossible not to conjure up sexy, smoldering thoughts of that swoon-worthy live performance by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Their chemistry truly sent us all off the deep end. 

For every time the Oscars gets something so very right (i.e. Parasite winning best picture in 2019), the Academy Awards can also get other things so very wrong (remember when Crash triumphed over Brokeback Mountain or how they were so transparently skewed they generated the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite?).

The best original song category is no stranger to some regrettable follies. After all, this is a category that has nominated living legend Diane Warren 14 times and sent her home empty handed every single time. (“I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” “Because You Loved Me,” and “‘Til It Happens To You” sure seemed like locks at the time, and then, nadda.) It’s also the same category that controversially nominated a track from an obscure Christian flick back in 2014, only to have to revoke it later.

Of course, some of the most egregious Oscar moments have come from giving an Academy Award to confounding song selections. From forgettable Disney ditties to treacly disaster flick ballads (the only thing worse than perishing in The Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure was the music accompanying them), there have been more than a few times when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) showed that they can be utterly tone deaf. (Apologies in advance to talented icons Phil Collins, Barbra Streisand, Elton John and repeat offender Randy Newman.)

In no particular order, these are one critic’s picks for the 15 worst Oscar-winning songs of all-time. Hey, you can’t get them all right.

“Writing’s on the Wall,” Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith from Spectre

Image Credit: Courtesy Photo

Putting aside the fact that this is one of the more lackluster James Bond songs (we dare you to try and hum this one from memory), what was even more bleak was having it triumph over Lady Gaga’s “Til It Happens to You,” a harrowing ode to survivors of sexual assault, from The Hunting Ground. 

“You’ll Be in My Heart,” Phil Collins from Tarzan

A forgettable song from a forgettable movie, Phil Collins’ snoozer inexplicably beat out both Aimee Mann’s haunting “Save Me” and Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman’s hilarious “Blame Canada.” It’s the Crash of best original song winners: its victory remains baffling as ever. Listen here.

“The Morning After,” Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn from The Poseidon Adventure

Talk about a disaster: this waterlogged ballad bested Michael Jackson’s far superior “Ben.” Listen here.

“You Must Love Me,” Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice from Evita

Image Credit: Courtesy Photo

Must we? Because, honestly, Madonna has had infinitely better and more deserving songs from movies, including the Oscar-winning Stephen Sondheim composition “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)” from Dick Tracy. Worst of all, this drowsy ballad unreasonably won over the toe-tapping perfection that is “That Thing You Do!”

“We May Never Love Like This Again,” Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn from The Towering Inferno

Kasha and Hirschhorn gave us yet another musical mishap from a ’70s disaster flick, toppling a better song; in this case, the self-titled, gut-busting theme to Blazing Saddles. Listen here.

“Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” Allie Wrubel and Ray Gilbert from Song of the South 

Like Splash Mountain, it’s time to once and for all bid this song from this racist garbage adieu-dah. Listen here.

“You Light Up My Life,” Joseph Brooks from You Light Up My Life

While other wistful ballads have managed to stand the test of time, this one is about as corny as it gets. It’s best known as something you dread hearing in the dentist chair. Plus, it somehow beat a killer Bond song! (In this case, Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does it Better.”) Listen here.

“Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” Elton John and Tim Rice from The Lion King

Image Credit: Courtesy Photo

Disney had the best original song category in a chokehold for the ’90s (see: “Beauty and the Beast,” “A Whole New World,” “Colors of the Wind.”). But it was The Lion King that dominated in 1994, garnering three song nominations with “Circle of Life,” “Hakuna Matata” and the eventual winner, which was the weakest of the bunch, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” Not a bad song, but “Circle of Life” soars higher.

“The Shadow of Your Smile,” Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster from The Sandpiper

Awarding this cocktail lounge ditty over “What’s New, Pussycat”? Whoa-ah-ohhhh-ah-no. Listen here.

“Sweet Leilani,” Harry Owens from Waikiki Wedding

Like being stuck in the luau from hell, this sappy island tune somehow bested the Gershwins’ legendary “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.” Listen here.

“I Need to Wake Up,” Melissa Etheridge from An Inconvenient Truth

Image Credit: Courtesy Photo

This song means well, it really does. But for a song that’s supposed to capture the urgency of the global warming crisis, it barely scratches the emotional surface of the rapidly melting iceberg. Sorry to put you in second place again, Al Gore, but this one belonged to “Listen” from Dreamgirls.

“Secret Love,” Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster from Calamity Jane

As painful as it is to put the incomparable Doris Day on a worst-of anything list, this saccharine ballad doesn’t quite hold a candle to the song it beat out: Dean Martin’s absolutely essential “That’s Amore.” Listen here.

“We Belong Together,” Randy Newman from Toy Story 3 

There was no way Randy Newman was ever going to be able to top “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” in the Toy Story universe, but maybe the Academy felt bad for snubbing that one all the way back in 1995 and awarded this subpar entry instead. Listen here.

“If I Didn’t Have You,” Randy Newman from Monsters, Inc. 

Sorry to do this to you twice, Randy! But Enya’s “May It Be” from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings is the one song to rule them all. Listen here.

“Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born),” Barbra Streisand and Paul Williams from A Star Is Born

Image Credit: Courtesy Photo

With all due respect to music/screen/stage legend Streisand, this song is no “Shallow,” and as far as 1976 is concerned, that year’s theme song was “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky.

The Oscars, which held their first awards ceremony at the stately Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 1929 and their first TV broadcast in 1953, are meeting the digital age head-on: Producers of the 2023 Oscars telecast, which airs on Sunday, March 12, will put up QR codes at the end of most “acts” of the show, heading into commercial breaks, inviting viewers to learn more about a particular craft.

And they plan to address the incident that dominated, and in many ways derailed, last year’s show – the stunning moment when Will Smith slapped presenter Chris Rock after Rock told a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

Those were two of the news breaks that came out of a Zoom call held on Wednesday, March 8 in which eight key members of the creative team met with entertainment journalists. The biggest news that came out the session is that Lady Gaga will not be performing her Oscar-nominated “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick on the telecast because she’s busy making a movie, Joker: Folie a Deux, in which she’s playing Harley Quinn opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker.

The Oscar team understood her decision. “She is in the middle of shooting a movie right now, and here we are honoring the movie industry and what it takes to make a movie,” Glenn Weiss, one of the show’s executive producers and showrunners, said on the call. “After a bunch of back and forth, it didn’t feel like she can get a performance to the caliber that we’re used to with her, that she’s used to. So she is not going to perform on the show. However, this is all from our point of view of somebody making a movie and us completely understanding that that’s what’s a priority in this business, especially when we’re honoring movies.”

Oscar show production talent who participated in the Zoom call were Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, executive producers and showrunners; Molly McNearney, executive producer; Sarah Levine Hall, producer; Rickey Minor, musical director; and Dave Boone, Agathe Panaretos and Nefetari Spencer, writers. The session was moderated by Jacqueline Coley, awards editor for Rotten Tomatoes.

McNearney is not only executive producer of the 2023 Oscars, she is also executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and, since 2012, the wife of the host of both shows, Jimmy Kimmel.

Here are eight selected highlights of the conversation:

On Acknowledging ‘The Slap’

Molly McNearney: “We’re going to acknowledge it, and then we’re going to move on, because I think that’s probably what everyone wants, especially in that room.  We don’t want to make this year about last year.  But, yeah, it’s certainly something that we can and will address in a comedic fashion.” 

On Bringing QR Codes to the Oscars

Ricky Kirshner: “At the end of most of our acts, we’re going to put up a QR code and let you go see the nominees that are going to come up.  So, like, at the end of one of the acts, we will say:  “To learn more about the cinematography nominees, scan the QR code on your screen,” and we will take you to a two‑ or three‑minute package to really humanize those people.  You’ll meet all the nominees in that category and really give yourself a rooting interest for not only the film you might like, but the people you might like and learn a little bit more about what they do and who they are.”

Glenn Weiss: “It’s allowing us not just to be a television show, but us to cross platforms and invite people to watch the show and, also, take in content, you know, digitally as well.  It’s really important for us that people who are watching the show are invested.  And the more they know about the nominees, for example, the more they might have rooting interest for who’s going to win.  And in that case, it makes it more must‑see, so to speak.” 

On Finding the Right Tone

Molly McNearney: “We don’t ‑‑ we’re not going to make anyone mad in the room.  We’re trying to book those people on Monday [on Jimmy Kimmel Live!].  So we’re not here to insult.  We’re here to help celebrate.  We’re here to lift them up.  It’s a big night.  We’ll obviously have a lot of laughs, but not so much at people’s expense.  You know, we might take a jab here or there, but we really want people to have fun and feel good because they should. 

Dave Boone: “Yeah.  At the end of the day, it’s not a roast, it’s a celebration.” 

On Overseeing Music on the Show

Rickey Minor: “We’re looking into making sure that this is 95 years of great music.  And so diving through that, it’s a treasure trove.  I mean, it’s hard to make a commitment to which things that we’re going to do.  So we have a lot of material to choose from.  …It’s about pacing the music where it’s not all dramatic play‑ons or very, you know, emotional, but things with tempo, things with ‑‑ stylistically from different continents around the world.  And so, musically, it’s a celebration of film.  And it’s ‑‑ because we’re here in Hollywood doesn’t mean that this is where it only happens.  It happens all around the world for many years.  And so, we’re going to celebrate that.”

Ricky Kirshner: “We will have our orchestra on stage, and they’ll be featured a lot in the show this year.  I know people like to see them. And obviously, Rickey likes his time on TV.”

Rickey Minor (playing along): “Yeah, it’s in the contract.”

On Juggling Jimmy Fallon Live! and The Oscars

Molly McNearney: “It was a lot of work doing [both shows] at one time.  We’re dark now, this week, which is nice.  So we can just focus on Oscars.  But I will say there is definitely a greater sense of pride for a writer getting a joke on the Oscars than on Jimmy Kimmel Live!  And I think it’s a much bigger audience, and these jokes are being quoted in the press the next day, and they ‑‑ everyone wants their hand on one of those moments.  But it’s a very collaborative ‑‑ it gets really exciting in the room when someone says a joke and someone else makes it better.  And I think that goes for the teamwork of the show too.  Like, we’re all here to help each other look better.”

Glenn Weiss: “This has been ‑‑ I have done award shows for a very long time with very many hosts.  This has been such a multi‑month collaboration with both Jimmy, Molly, and the rest of the staff.  But, honestly, I’ve never seen a host as engaged, and it’s been a really, really great experience.  Jimmy loves movies … and everything that has gone back and forth between, you know, the folks at Kimmel and folks at the Oscars, it has been a really great build and a great experience that has gone on for months.  It’s not just, “We’re dark week of.”  … You guys are putting in so much more than that.”

On What’s Keeping Them Up at Night

Molly McNearney: “Honestly, keeping us up at night in my house right now is just deciding which jokes are going to make it and which aren’t.  Because, again, we have a lot of great writers and a lot of great material.  And it’s a real science and the rhythm of the monolog and figuring out where to take the audience.  And I would say that’s keeping us up at night.  Thankfully, we’re in the world’s best hands with this team.”

Glenn Weiss: “I think the only thing keeping me up at night are text messages, goddamn text messages in the middle of the night.  Molly and Jimmy are in the bathroom brushing their teeth, and then my phone buzzes, and then Bill [Academy CEO Bill Kramer] buzzes me, and then Ricky buzzes me. So if you guys stop texting at night, I would get sleep and the show would be great.”

Molly McNearney: “That’s when we come up with our ideas, okay?  Right when you’re sleeping.”

On Whether They’re Concerned About Ratings

Glenn Weiss: “I will say there’s always concerns.  But at the end of the day, I think what we have to do is keep going forward and make this as great and entertaining and respectful and reverent a show as we possibly can.  You know, this entire business is going through a little bit of a transition.  That said, our objective is to do our jobs well and to give you a really great show to watch.  We can only hope the ratings go in the direction that we want them to, but we are just ‑‑ we’re committed to making this something that will be appreciated by everybody viewing it.”

Some Parting Words of Advice

Glenn Weiss: “You will not want to miss the top.”

Ricky Kirshner: “An opening you don’t want to miss.”