The Golden
Globe Awards are history for another year, which means that the Academy Awards are
right around the corner in just about a month (February 24th). It’ll be interesting to watch, if only to see
if host Seth McFarland (“Family Guy”, “American Dad” and “Ted”, one of last
years’ hit movies) will insult all the stars in the auditorium. You know he will. No one will be safe from his zingers. So to get you in the Oscar mood, we’ve got 5
Academy Awards music questions for you this time (and over the next couple of
weeks as well). You may not actually win
a statue, but you’ll probably have fun.
And even if you don’t have a clue about the answer, these are
multi-choice questions, so take a guess already.
QUESTIONS:
1. This song won the Academy Award for ‘Best Original
Song’ for 1941. Is it: a. “The Boogie
Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B” from the motion picture “Buck Privates”
(performed by the Andrews Sisters) b.
“Chattanooga Choo Choo” from “Sun Valley Serenade” or c. “The Last Time I Saw
Paris” from “Lady Be Good” (sung in the film by actress Ann Sothern). Your call, which one was the big winner that
night?
2. For the 51st Academy Awards held
in April of 1979, this song took home the Oscar for ‘Best Original Song’ of
1978. Is it: a. “Hopelessly Devoted To You” from the movie
“Grease” (sung by Olivia Newton-John) b. “Last Dance” from “Thank God It’s
Friday” (sung by Donna Summer) or c. “Ready To Take A Chance Again” from the
Chevy Chase flick, “Foul Play” (sung by Barry Manilow)
3. Phil Collins has won his share of awards over
the years, includes Grammys as well as Academy Award nominations, but did he
take home the coveted ‘Best Song’ Oscar statue for 1999 at the 72nd
annual Oscar bash held in March of 2000?
Here are three choices. Can you
guess the correct winning song? Is it: a. “You’ll Be In My Heart” from the animated
movie “Tarzan” (written and sung by Phil Collins) b. “Blame Canada” from “South
Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut” (sung by the movie’s cast) or c. “When She
Loved Me” from “Toy Story 2 (written and sung by Randy Newman).
4. It was the 55th annual Academy
Awards held in Los Angeles on April 11, 1983 and one of the following three
songs won the Oscar for ‘Best Song’ of 1982.
Can you guess the correct one? Is
it: a. “Eye of The Tiger” from “Rocky
III” (Sung by Survivor) b. “It Might Be
You” from “Tootsie” (sung by Stephen Bishop) or c. “Up Where We Belong” from
“An Officer And A Gentleman” (sung by Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes).
5. In April of 1967, five songs were up for ‘Best
Original Song From a Motion Picture” for 1966.
We won’t bore you with two of the five nominees – they didn’t stand a
chance. But of the remaining three,
which won the golden statue? a. “Alfie”
from the movie “Alfie” (sung by Cher) b.
“Born Free” from the motion picture of the same name (performed by Matt Monroe)
or c. “Georgy Girl” from “Georgy Girl” (sung by The Seekers).
ANSWERS
1. c. wins you the prize. The music for “The Last Time I Saw Paris” was
written by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was NOT written for the film, but had been
published in 1940, the year before the film was released. Jerome Kern, who had previously won an
Academy Award for the song “The Way You Look Tonight” in 1936, was so upset
about winning his Oscar for a song not specifically written for the movie that
he petitioned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to change the
rules and since then, a song has to have been written specifically for a motion
picture in order to be nominated.
2. b. “Last Dance” took home the golden statue. Donna Summer sang it in the movie and onto the charts, where it reached # 3 on Billboards’ Hot 100 chart. Donna followed that hit up with 4 # 1’s – “MacArthur Park” in 1978, “Hot Stuff”, “Bad Girls” and “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”, a duet with Barbra Streisand. The last three all charted in 1979.
3. a. Phil Collins was the winner with “You’ll
Be In My Heart” from the Disney animated feature, “Tarzan”. Although Phil had many # 1 hits throughout
his career, this particular song only made it to # 21 on Billboards Hot 100
chart in 1999, although it spent 19 weeks at # 1 on Billboards Adult
Contemporary Chart. In 2006, when
“Tarzan” was adapted for the Broadway stage, Phil contributed new songs to the
production.
4. Any one of those three songs could easily have
won an Academy Award, but c. is the answer we were looking for. “Up Where We Belong” was co-written by Buffy
Saint-Marie and Jack Nitzsche (music) with Will Jennings (lyrics). Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes sang the song
for the movie and had a # 1 hit on Billboards’ Hot 100 chart in November of 1982. Five years later, Jennifer Warnes would be
right back at the top of the charts (along with Bill Medley) for the song, “(I’ve
Had) The Time Of My Life” from the movie “Dirty Dancing”.
5. b. is the correct answer. For the movie, British singer Matt Monroe
sang the title song, although his vocal version of “Born Free” didn’t make the
charts in North America. Pianist Roger
Williams took his instrumental version of the song to # 7 on Billboards’ Hot
100 chart. John Barry, the man who scored many James Bond
films, wrote the music for “Born Free” with Don Black penning the lyrics. Black and Barry also collaborated on the
themes from three James Bond films, “Thunderball”, “Diamonds Are Forever” and
“The Man With The Golden Gun”. Black
received his 2nd Oscar nomination in 1970 (in collaboration with
co-writer Elmer Bernstein) for the title song for the 1969 John Wayne film,
“True Grit”. His 3rd
nomination (along with co-writer Walter Scharf) was for the title song for the
1972 movie “Ben” (which Michael Jackson took to # 1 on the singles chart). Black was later nominated for an Academy
Award twice more. He also wrote the
words to Lulu’s 1967 # 1 hit, “To Sir With Love”.
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