Celluloid Confetti

I love top 10 lists. I challenge anybody who thinks they are just lazy journalism to come up with nine other reasons for not liking them.

Well, I recently stumbled across the American Film Institute’s 100 Years, 100 Songs list, which they compiled back in 2004.

The AFI’s list only covered American films, alas, but they also considered songs that didn’t originate in the movie in which they appeared (unlike the Academy, who only recognise Best Original Song).

The AFI’s top 10 was predictable, but not, I think, wholly unreasonable:

#1 Over the Rainbow, from The Wizard of Oz
(Synopsis by the Marin Independent Journal’s Rick Polito: “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again”)
#2 As Time Goes By, from Casablanca
#3 Singin’ In The Rain, from Singin’ In The Rain
#4 Moon River, from Breakfast at Tiffany’s
#5 White Christmas, from Holiday Inn
#6 Mrs. Robinson, from The Graduate
#7 When You Wish Upon A Star, from Pinocchio
#8 The Way We Were, from The Way We Were
#9 Stayin’ Alive, from Saturday Night Fever
#10 The Sound of Music, from The Sound of Music

Well, that all seems fair enough, but I would like to offer my own, personal list of top 10 movie songs.

They are presented, for your pleasure, in no particular order. I do hope you like them:

#1 Bright Eyes, from Watership Down.

(Art Garfunkel’s cherubic tones herald the arrival of the Black Rabbit of Death. And this was supposed to be a kids film…)

#2 I’m Through With Love, from Some Like It Hot

(Marilyn Monroe’s best film? As Sugar Kane, she is sweet enough to sink a diabetic into a coma)

#3 If You Believe, from The Wiz

(Lena Horne’s nose may have looked a little suspect, but her voice was the real deal)

#4 Springtime for Hitler, from The Producers

(”Don’t be stupid! Be a smarty! Come and join the Nazi Party!”)

#5 Trust in Me, from Jungle Book

(”Slip into ssilent sslumber… Sail on a ssilver misst… Slowly and ssurely your senses will cease to resisst….”)

#6 Rebekah Del Rio’s rendition of Crying, from Mulholland Drive

(Lord knows what the film was all about, but whether you like Lynch or loathe him, few directors use sound so effectively)

#7 In the End, from the, erm, climax of Shortbus

(Joyful, dreamlike, and - best of all - it features a brass band)

#8 Stonehenge, from Spinal Tap (Thanks, Roger!)

(Especially the bit where it goes all folksy, and the midgets start dancing)

#9 I Could Have Danced All Night, from My Fair Lady

(It’s just a great song. I sing it in the shower*)

* this is actually true

#10 Gently Johnny, from The Wicker Man

(Pretty much every song in this film was solid gold. I think The Wicker Man has one of the finest, and most unique soundtracks ever)

I am pretty sure the above list contains every major significant musical accomplishment cinema has ever produced. But, just to be sure, here are my See Alsos:

- Pretty much any song from Labyrinth
- Pretty much any song from South Park The Movie and Team America: World Police (these count as one selection)
- The o-EE-o marching song, from The Wizard of Oz
- The Yub Yub song from the end of Return of the Jedi
- The Om Namah Shivaya song, from Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. Oh yes, and that bit where Kate Capshaw sings Anything Goes in Cantonese
- New York, New York, from Gremlins 2
- The song the little blue parasite sings in Brain Damage

Well, those are my choices.

I’m pretty sure I haven’t missed anything out. But perhaps you would care to add your own suggestions?