Winning a Golden Globe for best original song is often a stepping-stone to winning an Oscar in that category. Seven of the last 10 Globe winners went on to win the Oscar. Whoever wins when this year’s Golden Globes are presented on Sunday (Jan. 7) no doubt hopes that pattern continues.
But it doesn’t always work out that way. Since 1962, when the Globes introduced their best original song category, 12 songs have won a Globe that weren’t even nominated for an Oscar. A few weren’t eligible. Others simply didn’t get enough votes.
In the unlikely event that Bruce Springsteen’s “Addicted to Romance” from She Came to Me or Jack Black’s “Peaches” from The Super Mario Bros. Movie wins the Globe on Sunday, they’ll join this list. Those songs weren’t even shortlisted for this year’s Oscars. (That means Springsteen and Black can sleep in on Jan. 23, when the Oscar nominations are announced.)
This year’s four other Globe nominees for best original song all made the Oscar shortlist – “Dance the Night,” “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie and Lenny Kravitz’s “Road to Freedom” from Rustin. (No more than two of the Barbie songs can be Oscar-nominated.)
The roster of songs that won the Globe and weren’t even nominated for an Oscar includes several that were written and performed by pop and rock legends, including Springsteen, Madonna, Prince and Mick Jagger. Here’s a complete list of these 12 songs, in chronological order. The years shown are the year of the Oscar ceremony.
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1965: “Circus World” from Circus World
Written by: Ned Washington (lyrics); Dimitri Tiomkin (music)
Performed by: an uncredited vocal chorus
Notes: Washington and Tiomkin had received five Oscar nominations for best original song, winning for the 1952 classic “High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin’).” They were nominated for “Town Without Pity” from the 1961 film of the same name, which won the first Golden Globe ever presented for best original song. Washington and Tiomkin won seven Oscars between them, but didn’t get a nod for this bland and forgettable title song from the film starring John Wayne, Claudia Cardinale and Rita Hayworth.
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1966: “Forget Domani” from The Yellow Rolls-Royce
Written by: Norman Newell (lyrics), Riz Ortolani (music)
Performed by: Katyna Ranieri
Notes: Newell and Ortolani were Oscar-nominated two years earlier for “More” from Mondo Cane, which became one of the top pop standards of its time. Ortolani received a second Oscar nod for “Till Love Touches Your Love,” a first-rate song from Madron (1970). Veteran Italian vocalist Katyna Ranieri, who was Ortolani’s wife, sang the vocal version of “Forget Domani” heard in the film. Sinatra and Connie Francis both had minor Hot 100 hits with this toe-tapper in 1965. “Domani” means “tomorrow,” so the song’s message is to forget tomorrow and live for today.
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1967: “Strangers in the Night” from A Man Could Get Killed
Written by: Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder (lyrics); Bert Kaempfert (music)
Performed by: Bert Kaempfert
Notes: Kaempfert, who topped the Hot 100 in 1961 as an artist with the instrumental “Wonderland by Night,” scored again with this composition, which was featured in the James Garner film A Man Could Get Killed as an instrumental theme titled “Beddy Bye.” The Oscars, being more by-the-book than the Globes, insist that songs have lyrics to compete in the category. You know the rest of the story: Singleton and Snyder added lyrics to the song, Frank Sinatra recorded it and took it to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. His sumptuous recording won a Grammy for record of the year. The song (now with music and lyrics) received a Grammy nod for song of the year.
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1968: “If Ever I Would Leave You” from Camelot
Written by: Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics), Frederick Loewe (music)
Performed by: Franco Nero (voiced by Gene Merlino)
Notes: This gorgeous ballad was the standout song from the Broadway show, which opened in December 1960. Robert Goulet, who performed the song in his role as Lancelot, sang the song on practically every variety TV show of the 1960s, and there were many. A Golden Globe for a song that was already a standard was a stretch, to say the least, but the song is certainly award-worthy. Lerner and Loewe had won an Oscar for the title song to Gigi (1958).
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1980: “The Rose” from The Rose
Written by: Amanda McBroom (music and lyrics)
Performed by: Bette Midler
Notes: This heartfelt ballad probably would have won the Oscar, but McBroom was honest about the fact that she didn’t write it for the film. (Other songwriters have been less forthcoming about their songs’ origins and were allowed to compete — and, in at least one case, win.) “The Rose” received a Grammy nomination for song of the year. Bette Midler’s recording, which reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, was also Grammy-nominated for record of the year and won a Grammy for best female pop vocal performance.
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2005: “Old Habits Die Hard” from Alfie
Written by: Mick Jagger, David A. Stewart (music and lyrics)
Performed by: Mick Jagger
Notes: Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s title song from the original Alfie received a best song Oscar nod in 1966, but this mid-tempo rock song from the reboot, starring Jude Law, fell short. It would have been fun to see Mick Jagger on the Oscar stage and to see David A. Stewart get an Oscar so he could level up with his former Eurythmics partner Annie Lennox, who won for “Into the West” from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but it was not to be. “Alfie,” widely regarded as one of Bacharach’s finest songs, was a hard act to follow.
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2006: “A Love That Will Never Grow Old” from Brokeback Mountain
Written by: Bernie Taupin (lyrics), Gustavo Santaolalla (music)
Performed by: Emmylou Harris
Gustavo Santaolalla won an Oscar for best original score for this film, but he wasn’t nominated for this song. That’s true even though there were just three Oscar nominees for best original song that year. (One of them was “In the Deep” from Crash. That movie went on to controversially beat Brokeback Mountain for best picture, an outcome that may have been foretold in the song nominations.) Santaolalla’s lyricist, Bernie Taupin, would have to wait 14 more years for his first Oscar nomination, which he finally got for “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman. It won both the Golden Globe and the Oscar.
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2007: “Song of the Heart” from Happy Feet
Written by: Prince Rogers Nelson (music & lyrics)
Performed by: Prince
Notes: Prince won an Oscar for best original song score for Purple Rain, but he was never nominated for best original song. This peppy tune has the same sense of joy that made Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” a monster hit (and an Oscar nominee) in 2014. “Song of the Heart” received a Grammy nod for best song written for visual media.
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2008: “Guaranteed” from Into the Wild
Written by: Eddie Vedder (music and lyrics)
Performed by: Eddie Vedder
Notes: This bittersweet ballad captures the melancholy mood of the film, which starred Emile Hirsch. Eddie Vedder‘s soundtrack to the film was a hit, rising to No. 11 on the Billboard 200. “Guaranteed” received a Grammy nod for best song written for visual media.
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2009: “The Wrestler” from The Wrestler
Written by: Bruce Springsteen (music and lyrics)
Performed by: Bruce Springsteen
Notes: Springsteen had won the Oscar with “Streets of Philadelphia” from the 1993 film Philadelphia and was Oscar-nominated for the title song from the 1995 film Dead Man Walking, but was passed over with this song from the film starring Mickey Rourke. That’s true even though there were just three Oscar nominees for best original song in 2008. Springsteen’s world-weary recording of “The Wrestler” bubbled under the Hot 100 at No. 120. “The Wrestler” received a Grammy nod for best song written for visual media.
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2011: “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” from Burlesque
Written by: Diane Warren (music and lyrics)
Performed by: Cher
Notes: Warren has amassed 14 Oscar nominations for best original song – and is shortlisted again this year, which could bring her a 15th nod – but this one was passed over. This song almost seemed to be a comment on Cher’s indomitable nature. “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” lacks the wit and sass of Cher and Warren’s greatest joint effort “If I Could Turn Back Time,” but it has heart. It received a Grammy nod for best song written for visual media.
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2012: “Masterpiece” from W.E.
Written by: Madonna, Julie Frost, and Jimmy Harry (music and lyrics)
Performed by: Madonna
Madonna has introduced two Oscar winners for best original song, “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)” from Dick Tracy and “You Must Love Me” from Evita. But she has yet to be Oscar-nominated for a song she wrote or co-wrote. Being recognized for this midtempo ballad would probably have been especially meaningful: Madonna directed, co-wrote and co-produced W.E., the film in which the song appeared. Making the song’s omission all the more puzzling, there were just two Oscar nominees for best original song in 2011, the lowest number in history.
