Dean Pitchford returns to The Best Song Podcast to talk about bringing the 1984 movie Footloose to the big screen, and finding the best collaborators to write the songs from the hit soundtrack. That includes working with Kenny Loggins, who wrote and recorded the title song under very interesting circumstances. Host Jeff Commings talks with Pitchford about that Oscar-nominated song as well as "Let's Hear It for the Boy" and working with Deniece Williams. The lives of many of the nominated...

The 50th anniversary of the Original Song Academy Award featured two songs from the mega-popular movie Flashdance, which re-ignited the movie soundtrack craze, and two songs from Barbra Streisand's directorial debut Yentl. The other nominated song really did feel like a fifth wheel alongside these four songs, and we'll learn more about the journeys the songwriters took to get them out into the world on this episode.

Alan and Marilyn Bergman made history with their Oscar nominations for original song of 1982, becoming the first people to earn three song nominations in one year from three different films. Their work came in three different films, including Luciano Pavarotti's first (and last) movie role and a love song for the biggest comedy of 1982. Learn more about these nominated songs, and the other two that offered some tight competition for the Academy Award.

The star power among the Oscar-nominated songwriters for 1981 was very high. Lionel Richie, Christopher Cross, Carole Bayer Sager, and Randy Newman were just a few of the top names looking to become Oscar winners for their work writing songs for the movies. Host Jeff Commings tells the stories behind creating these hit songs, including Lionel Richie's tale of trying to get Diana Ross into the studio to sing "Endless Love."

Dean Pitchford joins the show to talk about writing the Oscar-nominated title song from the 1980 movie Fame. In addition to his recollections of the process he and composer Michael Gore took to arrive at the global hit song, Pitchford talks about the future recording star who helped add a "hook" to the song, and why Dolly Parton was his song's biggest competition.

Kermit the Frog's film debut brought Oscar winner Paul Williams his final Oscar nomination, writing the classic song "The Rainbow Connection" with Kenny Ascher. Host Jeff Commings shares Williams' thoughts about the meaning of the wistful lyrics and why Paul Williams was not able to continue his work in the 1980s. Other Oscar winners in contention for the 1979 Original Song Oscar were Henry Mancini and Marvin Hamlisch, both supplying sentimental love ballads that didn't hold a candle to...

The pressure of creating a hit song after the success of "Evergreen" and "You Light Up My Life" was felt in 1978, though the Oscar-nominated songs did not really reach that bar. But not for lack of trying. The musical Grease became the highest-grossing musical of the time, cemented Olivia Newton-John as a movie star and gave her a great love song that was new to the musical and a requirement in her contract. Host Jeff Commings shares more stories about Grease, and the competition for the...

One of the most popular songs of the 1970s found its way onto the list of Academy Award nominees for 1977, and the story of the song's rise to fame is just a small part of the legacy of "You Light Up My Life." Host Jeff Commings talks about the song's history and its post-Oscars aftermath, as well as the two songs nominated from Disney movies that year, a retelling of the Cinderella story, and the second Bond song to receive an Oscar nomination.

Horror, comedy, romance, and action are all represented in the five songs nominated for the Academy Award from 1976. Host Jeff Commings tells the stories of the creation of Barbra Streisand's first songwriting effort, Bill Conti's on-the-cheap recording of the Rocky theme song, and how Peter Sellers made an earnest love song laugh-out-loud funny.

The first guest of The Best Song Podcast is Keith Carradine, who talks with host Jeff Commings about writing the Oscar-nominated song "I'm Easy" for the 1975 Robert Altman film Nashville. Carradine tells of the origins of the film's concept, including having actors write and perform their own songs, and how he handled the sudden award attention for his song. You'll also learn about the other four songs nominated for the 1975 Academy Award and why Carradine thought "the Motown machine" made...

The list of five songs nominated for the 1974 Academy Award were about as diverse as you could get. Not only did Mel Brooks give us a comedy song about the fake sheriff at the center of his movie Blazing Saddles, but an unknown songwriting duo offered up a jaunty song about a loveable dog. There's also the conventional love ballad and a sweet tribute to a fictional child in a musical that marked the return of legendary songwriters Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Host Jeff Commings offers...

After many years of trying, a theme song from a James Bond movie finally broke through and received an Oscar nomination! Paul and Linda McCartney made history with "Live and Let Die," not only ushering in a new chapter for James Bond songs, but showing that rock music can be a part of Academy history two years after "Theme From Shaft" won the Academy Award. Host Jeff Commings talks more about the story to bring "Live and Let Die" to the screen, and the extremely popular Barbra Streisand song...

The conversation surrounding the Oscar-nominated songs from 1972 might start with the songs that were not  nominated, instead of the five that made the cut. Two original songs from the hit movie Cabaret, which remains one of the oddities of Academy Award history, especially knowing how loved the movie itself was by the Academy. Host Jeff Commings gives a history of the five nominated songs, including a love song for a killer rat and a love song in the midst of immense tragedy.

Johnny Mercer's 18th and final Oscar nomination for songwriting came for a conventional movie song that was competing for the big award alongside a song that was the equivalent of a 9.1 earthquake. Shaft featured a no-holds-barred black New York private investigator and a no-holds-barred theme song that shook up the list of five Oscar nominees from that year. Isaac Hayes, who was new to the Hollywood game, wrote a song that sounded new but also fit the formula of other title songs that came...

Competition was tight for the Original Song Oscar for songs released in 1970, as six of the 11 Oscar nominees had already won at least one Oscar. The five songs weren't immensely popular with the public, but they did provide some intriguing storylines as two members of a moderately popular rock and roll band wrote a conventional love ballad and used pseudonyms in case the song was a flop. Henry Mancini found himself writing his first song for Julie Andrews, and Leslie Bricusse was gunning for...

Songwriters tried very, very hard to bring rock 'n' roll music into the Oscar nominees for Original Song in 1969, but the old guard strongly resisted and left off some now-classic tunes from the final list of five. Burt Bacharach and Hal David tried very hard to fight against the old ways of Hollywood, and managed to get a nomination for a classic movie song with a pop flavor. As you learn more about the five nominees, think about whether they were more worthy of a nomination than the ones...

Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand originated two of the songs nominated for the Original Song Oscar in 1968: "Star" and "Funny Girl." The men who wrote those songs had some tough competition for the award that year, including a married couple who were making their big breakthrough with a seemingly nonsensical song that doesn't fit into any genre. Learn more on this episode with host Jeff Commings.

History was made in 1967, when Quincy Jones became the first Black man to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Jones was having a banner year, writing the nominated song "The Eyes of Love," the title song for the eventual Best Picture winner In the Heat of the Night, and the Oscar-nominated score for In Cold Blood. Though he would become a superstar producer in the next decade, Jones was still struggling to find popularity with the public. The other nominees for Original...

Though the British Invasion of pop songs took place two years earlier, British cinema was becoming popular in the mid-1960s thanks to London taking the theme of the Swinging '60s very literally. Two of the Oscar-nominated songs from 1966 are title songs about two sexually-charged Brits, while one of its Oscar competitors is a very innocent (and brief) tune by the prim and proper British lady (at least onscreen) Julie Andrews. And then there's a surprise hit song by two newbies to the Oscar...

One year after the Beatles gave us a rock 'n' roll movie musical, Frenchman Michel Legrand gave us the first fully sung-through original movie musical with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. He and lyricist/director Jacques Demy set the world on fire with this candy-colored film that featured a moving Oscar-nominated song competing for the award with two comedy songs and a new tune from the popular duo of Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer. It's a very diverse group of songs that continued to highlight...

Though 1964 was celebrated for the return of the original movie musical with the release of Mary Poppins, there was another movie release that set the world on fire with its revolutionary music. A Hard Day's Night was the film debut of the Beatles during their yearlong "invasion" in the United States. What is remarkable about 1964 as far as the Oscars is concerned is how none of the songs from the Beatles got an Original Song Oscar nomination. So, what was deemed better than the title song or...

Movie songs were on an upswing of popularity with the public after the success of "Moon River," but 1963 did not help that cause with a list of five Oscar-nominated songs that were not major hits. One of the songs came from a cringe-inducing Italian documentary, while another was from a Jackie Gleason movie that started as a musical but got many of the songs cut out as Hollywood continued to shy away from original movie musicals. Learn more about the nominated songs and their creators on this...

Film composers were starting to take over the duties of writing the music for movie songs in the 1960s, and that was evident in the list of Oscar-nominated songs from that year. Four of the five songs contain music by score composers instead of trained songwriters, which signaled the likely end of an era for the Hollywood songwriter. Sammy Fain was the only traditional song composer of the bunch, writing a song that competed with those written by Henry Mancini, Elmer Berstein, Bronislau...

Director Blake Edwards and composer Henry Mancini had been working in Hollywood in relative obscurity for a while, but in 1961, they blasted into superstardom with the release of the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. The Oscar-nominated song "Moon River" became one of the most popular songs that year, though studio executives had briefly fought to cut it from the movie. The story of that song, and the four others competing with it for the 1961 Academy Award, are told by host Jeff Commings in this...

Rock and roll and Hollywood still fought with the public for their ears and money when it came to popular songs in 1960. Elvis was still the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but movie songs were failing to gain much respect and love from audiences. The five nominees for the Original Song Oscar in 1960 proved that, though they were not of extremely bad quality. Host Jeff Commings brings you the histories of those songs, including the final Oscar-nominated song that Bing Crosby will introduce in film.