The following listing (in multiple parts) was an attempt to compile a collection of many of the greatest song and dance moments in film history. Though the list appears to be dominated by musicals, other genres were examined and included.

Those that are exceptional examples of the development of song/dance are marked with this symbol:

AFI's 25 Greatest Movie Musicals of All Time are marked with an icon and their ranking number (#)

Another point of reference for this kind of material may be found in the AFI's selections of 100 Years...100 Songs and in this site's genre writeup of "Musical Films".

For the Boys (1991)

Director Mark Rydell's film told the story of 1940s, Martha Raye-inspired actress/USO singer Dixie Leonard (Oscar-nominated Bette Midler) who teamed with Bob Hope-inspired entertainer Eddie Sparks (James Caan) to perform for the Armed Forces over a 50 year period; her exuberant and bawdy performances for WWII troops included the sassy Stuff Like That There (pictured) ("I want huggin' and some squeezin' and some huggin' and pleasin', and some stuff like that there"), and her loving soulful ballad P.S. I Love You to her Korea-stationed husband Michael (Arliss Howard); also her tender, beautiful rendition of the Beatles' ballad In My Life (pictured) to soldiers in Vietnam - and Dixie and Eddie's signature tune I Remember You that closed their show.

42nd Street (1933)

# 13

Talented Broadway dance director Busby Berkeley's highly-regarded choreography in this Warners' production (produced by Darryl Zanuck) included landmark, spectacular designs, scores of chorus girls, large extravagant and escapist musical 'production numbers', sumptuous art deco sets, surrealistic imagery, optical effects, zoom lenses, fast-paced timing and rhythmic editing, and wise-cracking bawdy dialogue; this classic 'backstage' musical film, the first of its kind from Warner Bros. in 1933, featured penned tunes of composer Harry Warren (and co-writer lyricist Al Dubin), who contributed You're Getting to Be A Habit with Me (sung by Bebe Daniels), Shuffle Off to Buffalo (about newlyweds on their honeymoon on a train named the Niagara Limited), Young and Healthy (sung by Dick Powell amidst dazzling white chorines on revolving turntables), and the climactic title song 42nd Street in which star Ruby Keeler in her film debut (as Peggy Sawyer) tap-danced heavily atop a taxi - when the camera pulled way, it revealed that she was on a set that depicted the intersection of Broadway and ("naughty, gaudy, bawdy") 42nd Street (a mammoth set with rows of identical-looking chorus girls) -- and then perched atop the skyscraper-skyline of NYC.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)

One of the first memorable dance scenes in this silent film was Latin lover Rudolph Valentino's sensuous tango performed in a smoky cantina while dressed in an Argentinian gaucho costume.

French Cancan (1955)

Funny Face (1957)

Funny Girl (1968)

# 16

Director William Wyler's first musical film, a Columbia Pictures adaptation of the Jule Style-Isobel Lennart-Bob Merrill stage musical that starred singer Barbra Streisand (reprising her Broadway role) in a biopic about comedienne/entertainer Fanny Brice, opened with the Oscar-winning star (sharing the award with Katharine Hepburn) reprising her role and in the first scene telling her mirror reflection: "Hello, gorgeous!"; her most memorable songs included her performance of the chart-topping, mega-smash hit song People (ironically, the title song Funny Girl was nominated for an Oscar instead) - a song of emotional longing, the remarkable final song Don't Rain on My Parade that was sung on the bow of a tugboat, and a compelling rendition of My Man.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)

The Gang's All Here (1943)

The Gay Divorcee (1934)

This RKO film by director Mark Sandrich was the second pairing of Fred Astaire (as amorous dancer Guy Holden) and Ginger Rogers (as Mimi) in their first starring roles in a film; it included two major song-and-dance numbers: their classic and sensual duet Night and Day (pictured) - a soft and whispery Cole Porter tune during which Rogers finally surrendered and melted to Astaire's lyrical seduction in a vast, deserted ballroom of a resort hotel and on a moonlit balcony, and the 17-minute lavish production of The Continental (pictured) - the longest number in a film up to that time and the first song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song - with almost one hundred dancers (males in black, females in white) on a set representing the Brighton hotel's esplanade; the film also included Astaire's early solo song and tap-dance A Needle in a Haystack performed in a London hotel room (in which he changed from a dressing gown to a tie and jacket during the number), and Edward Everett Horton's song/dance number with a young Betty Grable titled Let's K-nock K-neez while dressed in a period bathing suit.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1951)

George White's Scandals (1934)

This pre-Code Busby Berkeley-inspired Fox film was the first of two productions based upon the Ziegfeld Follies-like stage spectacles of legendary Broadway impresario George White (the second was George White's 1935 Scandals (1935) that featured the film debut of Eleanor Powell), with stars Rudy Vallee (as entrepreneur Jimmy Martin), Jimmy Durante (as Happy Donnelly) and Alice Faye (as aspiring singer Kitty Donnelly/Mona Vale, in her film debut); during the lurid (Oh, You) Nasty Man! number, Faye wore a skimpy costume while appearing with rows of dancing chorines (called the White "Scan-Dolls"); another voyeuristic number was titled Hold My Hand in which the dancers lifted their white gowns and waved their skirts; the film also featured Jimmy Durante's infamous performance of Cabin in the Cotton in blackface, with the Scan-Dolls costumed in polka-dotted outfits with figures of black males strapped to their middles.

Gigi (1958)