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 The American
Film Institute in Los Angeles conducted their seventh polling, 100 Years...100
Songs that highlighted "America's Greatest Music in the Movies."
See also this site's informative sections on Entertainment
Weekly's 100 Best Film Soundtracks, Film
Comment's 101 Film Score Milestones (1933-2001), and Greatest
Musical Song/Dance Movie Moments and Scenes (illustrated).
AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs revealed the 100 greatest
songs in American films, as chosen by leaders of the entertainment community,
in a three-hour television event, that aired on the CBS Television Network
in June 2004. Other AFI pollings were for:
Facts About Criteria for Selection:
A ballot was distributed in 2003 with 400
nominated films and songs to a jury of 1,500 leaders from the
film community, including film artists (directors, screenwriters, actors,
editors, composers, cinematographers, etc.) critics and historians.
Only songs from feature-length American films released before
January 1, 2003, were considered. [AFI defined an American film as an
English language film with significant creative and/or financial production
elements from the United States, and a feature-length film as a motion
picture of narrative format that is typically over 60 minutes in length.]
Voters could submit up to five write-in choices not included among the
400 nominees. The jurors were asked to consider the following criteria
in their selections of greatest songs:
- Song - Music and lyrics (that must be part
of the film) featured in an American film that set a tone of mood,
define character, advance plot and/or express the film's themes in
a manner that elevates the moving image art form. Songs may have been
written and/or recorded specifically for the film or previously written
and/or recorded and selected by the filmmaker to achieve the above
goals.
- Cultural Impact - Songs that have captured
the nation's heart, echoed beyond the walls of a movie theater and,
ultimately, stand in our collective memory for the film itself.
- Legacy - Songs that resonate across the century,
enriching America's film heritage and captivating artists and audiences
today.
NOT ELIGIBLE:
Tunes with no lyrics -- like
the "Colonel Bogey March" from The
Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and the themes from Gone
With the Wind (1939), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and The Godfather (1972) were not eligible.
Film scores were not eligible. "Laura" - the theme from
the Oscar-nominated drama of the same name Laura
(1944), "A Summer's Place" and [The Theme from]
"Picnic" were not eligible because the lyrics did
not appear in the film and were written for the song after the film's
release.
For clarification's sake, a song need not have been written
especially for a movie to be eligible. Bob Seger's "Old Time
Rock and Roll" was eligible even though it was not written
specifically for the film Risky Business (1983).
Facts
About the 400 Nominees for the Greatest American Movie Songs:
- Bing Crosby topped the list of nominees as the most
represented performer with 12 nominated songs; Fred Astaire was second
with 11; others well-represented included Gene Kelly (8) and Frank
Sinatra (7)
- Judy Garland was the most represented female performer
with nine songs
- Barbra Streisand had eight nominated songs, as did
Marni Nixon, though she never appeared on screen. Her voice was used
in performances by Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn.
- Among composers, Richard Rodgers had the most nominated
songs with 18; Irving Berlin was second with 11
- The 1950s was the most represented decade with 67
nominees; the 1980s had 62 nominees
- The Wizard of Oz (1939),
Singin' in the Rain (1952), Meet
Me in St. Louis (1944), The Lion King (1994), and The
Sound of Music (1965) were among the most-represented on the
ballot, with three nominated songs apiece
- The ballot of nominees stretched from Al Jolson (two
songs from The Jazz Singer (1927),
"My Mammy" and "Toot, Toot, Tootsie") to Eminem
(8 Mile (2002) and "Lose Yourself") and "All
That Jazz" and "Razzle Dazzle" from Chicago (2002);
there were four Elvis tunes on the ballot
- There were non-musical films on the ballot, for example:
 The Shawshank Redemption (1994) with
the Mozart opera "Duettino--Sull'Aria" from "The Marriage
of Figaro," and Apocalypse Now (1979)
with The Doors' "The End"
- "White Christmas" (by Bing Crosby) was
on the ballot for its contribution to Holiday Inn (1942) and
not for its inclusion in White Christmas (1954); "Easter
Parade" was also listed for Holiday Inn (1942) and not
for Easter Parade (1948). Likewise, "Singin' in the Rain,"
which made its film debut in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929),
was nominated for its rendition by Gene Kelly in Singin'
in the Rain (1952)
- Non-human nominees included Jiminy Cricket (as voiced
by Cliff Edwards) for "When You Wish Upon a Star" in Pinocchio
(1940), and Kermit the Frog (as voiced by Jim Henson) for "Rainbow
Connection" in The Muppet Movie (1979)
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