I just became aware of what's quite possibly the weirdest thing I've ever heard about who's won Oscars - or, rather, who hasn't won Oscars. Did you know that no James Bond theme song has ever won an Oscar? Given how well known many of them are (ok, not so much the songs from the last 10-15 years, but before then), the fact that musically many of them really are classics of their genres, and that many have been sung by big names - how on Earth did this occur? A few have been nominated of course (including "Nobody Does It Better" and "For Your Eyes Only" - the latter leading to perhaps the biggest and most over the top production number in the entire history of Oscar telecasts), but not a single one has ever won. Can Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" beat that jinx? Hell, can it even get nominated?
Posted by armand at December 2, 2006 05:44 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Movies | MusicUh - you do realize the kinds of stuff that's been getting nominated lately, right? And hell, that Annie Lennox's win was for that utterly forgetable whatever it was from the LOTR? It seems to me that Best Songs should at least be memorable - and the Bond songs tend to be that.
Other Cornell/Bond trivia - this song is only the 5th time that a guy has sung the title song, and the 1st time that's happened since a-ha sang "The Living Daylights".
Though I guess I should ask - are you aware of any '06 song that should be nominated for this award?
Posted by: Armand at December 2, 2006 05:57 PM | PERMALINKWell, I don't care how many men have sung it. If Duran Duran didn't get it, then no way Cornell should have it. Actually, the one that I think is probably the best (aside from Goldfinger which slays them all) is the Carly Simon. Even though it was used for burger ads later on.
Posted by: binky at December 2, 2006 06:02 PM | PERMALINKI think the original John Barry theme music should get recognized by somebody, somewhere. It's only one of the two or three most instantly recognizable pieces of music in all moviedom, no?
Posted by: jacflash at December 2, 2006 08:45 PM | PERMALINKWell my point about the gender of the singer of the songs was just that the producers would seem to have built a woman singing the title song into the overall feel of the series - and for whatever reason, that struck me as interesting.
And yikes - View to a Kill wouldn't be near the top of my award-worthy Bond themes, though as you know, I do love Duran Duran. Like I said, the Carly Simon song ("Nobody Does it Better") from The Spy Who Loved Me was nominated, but lost (to "You Light Up My Life"). And yeah, I'd agree that that would seem to be the most Best Song-like of the songs - other than the Shirley Bassey classics (I mean she didn't only do "Goldfinger" - don't forget "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Moonraker").
I guess my bigger point was just that there was a time when everyone knew or could recognize the songs that won Best Song - but lately, that's not so much the case.
Posted by: Armand at December 2, 2006 08:51 PM | PERMALINKI know. I don't think View to a Kill is good either. But Chris Cornell's songs sucks, well, diseased moose cock, or something. It's horrible. And thus, if it won, compared to View to a Kill, which was merely bad, then, well, you know, that's what I was trying to say.
Posted by: binky at December 2, 2006 09:20 PM | PERMALINK