Right off the bat, I noticed there was way too much Barbra.

Here's the list:
http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/songs.aspx

Dissect, dissect, dissect and:

Charting the number of winning songs from each decade reveals the 1990s were apparently the suckiest decade for top songs. The 1960s were by far the best years for top songs.

But there was a severe dis on the Bonds films by only including two of them, and as far as decades go, they missed the boat on the 80's by not including A View To A Kill- however it doesn't fit AFI's view of cultural impact by film, society, and musical contribution to the preceding two.

Oh well- as far as the top- you can't get much better than Over The Rainbow.

Speaking of Rainbows, Rainbow Connection as the only Muppet entry? What about "Hey, A Movie" from The Great Muppet Caper. That's one far more memorable to me

For that matter, where the hell were Cantina Band #1 and #2?

If AFI's going to do a songs review, they should do the best 100 scores as well. They'll probably excise some of our favorites, but they'll give a fair shake to the classics.

Songs were chosen on popularity and even then a lot of them aren't really that popular anymore. Some of the selections are songs that were NOT written for the films they were featured in. (i.e. "Unchained Melody" in "Ghost," "It Had To Be You" in "When Harry Met Sally" and "Puttin On The Ritz" in "Young Frankenstein")

One of my all time favorite songs wasn't included probably as the film is too obscure: "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?" from "The Happy Ending."

A few others I think are worthy:

"Come Saturday Morning" from "The Sterile Cuckoo"

"For All We Know" from "Lovers and Other Strangers"

"Born Free" from "Born Free"

"To Sir With Love" from "To Sir With Love"

I'm sure there's more that I'm not thinking of so I'll leave it open for further exploration.

James

Looking over the list, it seems as though they were really going for how well the song was used in the film and how memorable its usage was... "All that Jazz" in Chicago, "Puttin' on the Ritz" in Young Frankenstein, "It Had to Be You" in When Harry Met Sally, etc.

Based on that criterion I'd say the list is fairly good. There are things I'd cross off and others I'd add, of course, but it looks fairly good to me. Just glancing over the list without really thinking about it, the biggest flaw that stands out to me is that only two Henry Mancini songs made the cut, and neither of them was "Charade."

There were several I was surprised was not on the top 100 and some that probably should not have been but some of the younger ones voted for recent things that werent all that good, to be honest.

1. nothing at all from Oklahoma in the top 100? very strange

2. "Hey Big Spender" from Sweet Charity not there, but was mentioned on the program I noticed by one of the guests commenting on various songs, and many other great songs in there.

3. All those from West Side Story did not surprise me. Great show and songs. By the way, how many of you have noticed that some of Waxmans jazz scores from 1954-1955, I a Jury and Crime in Streets have some cues very similiar to what Bernstein wrote a few years later for this?

The top two I agree with.

I guess this was all based on how many votes it got from people out here like us,huh?

There were a few other things I noticed while watching these but I forgot them for now. LOL.

Judy, Liza and Barbra all had a bunch. Most should have been in there though.

quote:

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Originally posted by nightwing:
How about the two greatest musicals all time, My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof, only have ONE song between them (I Could Have Danced All Night, #17).

And, White Chrismas only #5? Is that not the most recorded song ever?

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That's because every singer in the world feels obliged to do a Christmas album, and every Christmas album has to have White Christmas on it. I was surprised it ranked that highly, frankly. I thought they did a nice job with the 100 overall -- it's all very subjective, and I'm sure there are some good ones that didn't make the list. But it would be very hard to argue with the top 2, and probably even the top 10.

As regards the Broadway shows made into movies: "If I Were A Rich Man" and "Sunrise, Sunset" are great songs, no question, but they really made their bones on Broadway, and were already established classics by the time they made it to Hollywood. It didn't disappoint me that more songs which originated on Broadway did not make the list -- I think it arguably could or should have been limited to songs written for, or made famous by virtue of appearing in, films!