Falling Slowly for Once

By Katey Rich

Over at Awards Daily, everyone is feeling the warm fuzzies from Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard's win for their stunning "Falling Slowly" from Once, and seeing the two of them up there was doubtlessly one of the highlights of a night full of largely expected winners. When Irglova took the stage again after being cut off by the orchestra, she said, "The fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to hold this, it's just proof that no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible."

In the same Awards Daily post, a commenter submitted a full list of the Best Song winners in the history of the Oscars. The list is remarkable, both for how many gems are included-- "Over the Rainbow, "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah," "White Christmas"-- and how many years seemed to have been fallow for truly worthy songs (who remembers the movie The Prince of Egypt, much less its Oscar-winning song?)

But in the best of years, like this one, the songs chosen evoke an unexplainable feeling about the movies they come from. You can't read the title "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" without hearing it in your mind, and thinking immediately of Robert Redford and Paul Newman goofing around on a bicycle. And just thinking of those first seven notes of "Moon River" evokes all the optimism and sad-eyed melancholy of Breakfast at Tiffany's, from the cigarette holder to the nameless cat.

Some years you doubt the reason for the existence of the Best Song category-- this ain't the Grammys!-- but looking over that list, you can't deny the power of a good song in a good movie to capture the whole thing in a three-minute melody. "Falling Slowly" deserved the Grammy it didn't win, surely, but the meaning of the song is so much greater within the context of the film, as a courtship and a collaboration all at once. That's what makes a song Oscar-worthy-- like art direction or cinematography, it brings something to the film that it never could have had without it. Surely we'll see some turkeys win in this category again, but Glen and Marketa have silenced anyone who would call for the abolition of this category for a long while.

Below the jump is the full list of winners; thanks a bunch again to Awards Daily's Pierre de Plume for posting the list.

1934: "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee
1935: "Lullaby of Broadway" from Gold Diggers of 1935
1936: "The Way You Look Tonight" from Swing Time
1937: "Sweet Leilani" from Waikiki Wedding
1938: "Thanks for the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of 1938
1939: "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz
1940: "When You Wish upon a Star" from Pinocchio
1941: "The Last Time I Saw Paris" from Lady Be Good
1942: "White Christmas" from Holiday Inn
1943: "You'll Never Know" from Hello, Frisco, Hello
1944: "Swinging on a Star" from Going My Way
1945: "It Might As Well Be Spring" from State Fair
1946: "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" from The Harvey Girls
1947: "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" from Song of the South
1948: "Buttons and Bows" from The Paleface
1949: "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Neptune's Daughter
1950: "Mona Lisa" from Captain Carey, U.S.A.
1951: "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" from Here Comes the Groom
1952: "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin')" from High Noon
1953: "Secret Love" from Calamity Jane
1954: "Three Coins in the Fountain" from Three Coins in the Fountain
1955: "Love Is a Many-Spendored Thing" from Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
1956: "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" from The Man Who Knew Too Much
1957: "All The Way" from The Joker Is Wild
1958: "Gigi" from Gigi
1959:"High Hopes" from A Hole in the Head
1960: "Never On Sunday" from Never on Sunday
1961: "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's
1962: "Days of Wine and Roses" from Days of Wine and Roses
1963: "Call Me Irresponsible" from Papa's Delicate Condition
1964: "Chim Chim Cher-ee" from Mary Poppins
1965: "The Shadow of Your Smile" from The Sandpiper
1966: "Born Free" from Born Free
1967: "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Dolittle
1968: "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair
1969: "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1970: "For All We Know" from Lovers and Other Strangers
1971: "Theme from Shaft" from Shaft
1972: "The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure
1973: "The Way We Were" from The Way We Were
1974: "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno
1975: "I'm Easy" from Nashville
1976: "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)" from A Star Is Born
1977: "You Light Up My Life" from You Light Up My Life
1978: "Last Dance" from Thank God It's Friday
1979: "It Goes Like It Goes" from Norma Rae
1980: "Fame" from Fame
1981: "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" from Arthur
1982: "Up Where We Belong" from An Officer and a Gentleman
1983: "Flashdance�What a Feeling" from Flashdance
1984: "I Just Called To Say I Love You" from The Woman in Red
1985: "Say You, Say Me" from White Nights
1986: "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun
1987: "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing
1988: "Let the River Run" from Working Girl
1989: "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid
1990: "Sooner Or Later (I Always Get My Man)" from Dick Tracy
1991: "Beauty and the Beast" from Beauty and the Beast
1992: "A Whole New World" from Aladdin
1993: "Streets of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia
1994: "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King
1995: "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas
1996: "You Must Love Me" from Evita
1997: "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic
1998: "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt
1999: "You'll Be In My Heart" from Tarzan
2000: "Things Have Changed" from Wonder Boys
2001: "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc.
2002: "Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile
2003: "Into the West" from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2004: "Al Otro Lado Del Ro" from The Motorcycle Diaries
2005: "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from Hustle & Flow
2006: "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth
2007: "Falling Slowly" from Once