Introduction: The following listing (in multiple parts, organized alphabetically) is a collection of many of the Greatest Song and Dance Musical Movie Moments in film history. Many of the greatest musical moments were accompanied by a well-staged production number, a lavish set, or a great memorable tune. Though the list appears to be dominated by musicals, other genres were examined and included. See also this site's writeup of the Musicals Film Genre.

Key to Iconic Symbols:

Exceptional examples of the development of song/dance

Entries in AFI's 25 Greatest Movie Musicals of All Time with ranking number (#)

Entries in Entertainment Weekly's 25 Best Movie Musicals of All Time with ranking number (#)

Doctor Dolittle (1967)

This Best Picture-nominated Fox film musical adaptation of a favorite children's story by director Richard Fleischer was considered overproduced and flat, although it starred Rex Harrison as the title character animal veterinarian who spoke in many animal tongues, and featured the Oscar-winning song If You Could Talk to the Animals (pictured) and the ridiculously romantic ode When I Look In Your Eyes (pictured) sung to a female seal dressed in a bonnet.

The Doors (1991)

Director Oliver Stone's documentary-style biopic included Val Kilmer's uncanny portrayal of 1960s Doors frontman lead singer Jim Morrison, including his own singing on stage as the rock great - especially in the Ed Sullivan Show scene in which he refused to self-censor words in his performance of Light My Fire - he mocked the camera with a huge grin and stressed the forbidden word "higher".

Down Argentine Way (1940)

Dreamgirls (2006)

The Duke is Tops (1938)

This vintage, low-budget, independent film made specifically for black audiences was completed in less than two weeks in the late 30s - it featured 21 year-old Lena Horne's screen debut as singer Ethel Andrews (billed as 'The Bronze Nightingale'); the highlight number of the film was Lena Horne's I Know You Remember; although the film was little seen at the time of its initial release, it was re-released as The Bronze Venus (1944) with Horne's name above the title, after her cross-over success in Cabin in the Sky (1943) and Stormy Weather (1943).

Dumbo (1941)

Easter Parade (1948)

This memorable MGM film by director Charles Waters was set in 1912, with a storyline of how vaudeville dancer Don Hewes (Fred Astaire, coming out of retirement) turned an aspiring chorus girl protege Hannah Brown (Judy Garland) into a star after he was dropped by his Broadway-bound dance partner Nadine Hale (Ann Miller). This was Astaire's and Garland's first and only teaming together, and producer Arthur Freed's fifth collaboration with composer Irving Berlin. It was filled with seventeen Irving Berlin songs, including the dance number It Only Happens When I Dance With You (pictured) between Astaire and partner Ann Miller in a hotel suite, Miller's strong song/dance rendition of Shakin' the Blues Away, Astaire's slow-motion version of Steppin' Out With My Baby, the gleeful Astaire/Garland comic duet (We're) A Couple of Swells while dressed as tramps, the opening rendition of Happy Easter, the marvelous vaudeville montage sequence with Astaire and Garland entitled When That Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam, and the closing performance of the title number Easter Parade (pictured). The film won the Academy Award for Best Musical Score.

8 Mile (2002)

Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

Writer/actor/director Woody Allen attempted to recapture the era of Hollywood musicals with this musical comedy and a large cast, and a soundtrack that contained many old 30s and 40s standards (such as non-singing actor Edward Norton singing Just You, Just Me in the opening scene and My Baby Just Cares for Me), that also included a romantic, graceful, and gravity-defying flying dance between divorced couple Joe (Woody Allen) and Steffi (Goldie Hawn) on the banks of the Seine River on Christmas Eve (with homage to Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in An American in Paris (1951)) after she wistfully sang I'm Thru With Love; also memorable was Hooray for Captain Spaulding with a room full of dancing Groucho Marxs.

Evita (1996)

The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)

A Face in the Crowd (1957)