# AFI Top 100 Film Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2004, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782 "2004-06-23T11:33:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RumMunkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@RumMunkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RumMunkey)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/21 "2004-06-23T16:19:03Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > Hey this will be fun: Let’s all list our favorite songs from the era of Silent Cinema! > > My Favorite was the one that went: > > " -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- " Personally, I was a little miffed the theme from Chaplin’s _City Lights_ wasn’t included on the list. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/22 "2004-06-23T16:30:12Z")
My observations: 1. Unless they slipped it passed me while I was out of the room, neither Hello Dolly, nor Don’t Rain on My Parade made the list! (Though Babs was well represented with other tunes.) Everything from Guys and Dolls and Music Man washed out too. That’s not right. And it’s not like they disqualified movie songs that came from Broadway shows – Chicago, Sound of Music, South Pacific, West Side Story and Showboat, among other, had winning songs. 2. What’s up with Fred Ebb? He looked and sounded like he’s at death’s door. John Kander did most of the talking, which is odd for that pair. 3. The only real jaw-dropping odd-ball choice, in my opinion, was that song from High Noon. What was with that??? 4. To address **bienville** ’s comment about the age of the songs, it should be noted that \*Yankee Doodle Boy \* (later renamed _Yankee Doodle Dandy_) was written for the Broadway show \*Little Johnny Jones \* which opened in 1904. So the program title is sort of right. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/23 "2004-06-23T16:31:25Z")
I also was upset at **three** songs from _My Fair Lady, Singin’ in the Rain_ and _West Side Story_, although I love those movies. Three from them but nothing from _Oklahoma_, or anything by Mario Lanza or Deanna Durbin? I guess they had no way to make all the people happy all the time. Were the people giving commentary about the songs (Lorna Lufts, Burt Bacharach, etc) the “experts” that chose the songs? Did anyopne else expect Travolta to do a Saturday Night Fever movie as he walked away from the camera at the end? I thought is hosting was pretty lame. StG ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/24 "2004-06-23T16:36:20Z")
Akk! My mistake. \*Don’t Rain on My Parade \* and \*Luck Be A Lady \* (from _G&D_) made the list. Sorry, a guy’s got to go to the bathroom sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/25 "2004-06-23T16:54:33Z")
I would like to have seen “Dueling Banjos” from _Deliverance_ and maybe the theme from _The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly_, but perhaps instrumentals were excluded. There were a couple songs from James Bond films, but I would have preferred “Live and Let Die” over “Nobody Does it Better”. I guess I should be thankful that “Born Free” wasn’t on it. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/26 "2004-06-23T16:58:39Z")
So #11 is “The Man That Got Away” from A Star is Born – another Judy Garland song. I watched the show and didn’t recognize this song at all. Am I just sheltered? I knew every other one. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/27 "2004-06-23T18:04:43Z")
Like Eve said, the AFI lists are nothing but meaningless argument-starters. Still, I did notice the absence of “A Hard Day’s Night” and other songs from the Beatles’ movies. (Maybe they were too British for an “American” list.) ---
**Author:** ![sciguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@sciguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciguy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/28 "2004-06-23T18:37:40Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > There were some nice juxtapositions – I esp. liked “Theme from Shaft” to “Swinging on a Star”… Great, you made me click the link. Here I thought Hudson Hawk was going to get some props from AFI… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/29 "2004-06-23T19:01:25Z")
Before anyone gets too upset with this special, or any of the other AFI “100” specials, remember that their main point is to raise funds for a very worthy organization that is helping to preserve our film heritage and encourage today’s beginning filmmakers. Walloon (AFI member 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/30 "2004-06-23T20:13:29Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Well, the name of the show _was_ “100 Years…100 Songs”, not “100 Years…100 Scores/Themes”. Song = singable tune. Personally I consider many tunes without words to still be songs. Anything I can hum or “la-di-da” to counts in my book. Still if they did do a Top 100 film scores, my wrath at composers being overlook would be sated. …tell me Pink Panther isn’t a song…rassin frassin ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/31 "2004-06-23T21:48:29Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > (not gonna look not gonna look not gonna look ) Hey, _look_! “It Had to Be You” debuted in 1989, in _When Harry Met Sally_! Well, whuddayaknow! ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/32 "2004-06-23T22:04:28Z")
> [@Max Carnage](#): > > Personally I consider many tunes without words to still be songs. Anything I can hum or “la-di-da” to counts in my book. Well, no, not really. A song has lyrics. Is Ravel’s _Bolero_ a song? No, it’s a musical piece. However, I understand what you’re saying. People call musical pieces “songs” all the damned time. In fact, in many peoples’ universes, that is all that there is in the musical world. Everything is a “song.” Beethoven’s 5th? They will call that a song. _Finlandia_ by Sibelius? yep, a _song!_ All the music in my MP3 player’s playlist are _songs_. That’s what they are called by iTunes, anyway. 😉 > [@](#): > > Still if they did do a Top 100 film scores, my wrath at composers being overlook would be sated. Well, I would be delighted as well, but I’ve come to the cynical conclusion that most people don’t care about film scores and don’t even acknowledge that they exist. Which explains why a instrumental-rich soundtrack CD will get complaints and 1-star ratings on [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com), because the [stupid, ignorant, heathen, dolt] customers were expecting the pop songs that peppered the film for a few seconds here and there, not, like, the actual _score_. James frickin’ Horner or Jerry frickin’ Goldsmith could write the most evocative and brilliant score of all time—or they could raise Mozart or Beethoven from the dead and get _them_ to write the most brilliant score of all time—and many people would still bitch because there were no pop songs on the damned CD. Don’t get me started on this one. (Oh wait—I already started!) 😉 > [@](#): > > …tell me Pink Panther isn’t a song…rassin frassin It isn’t! Sorry, but it isn’t! It’s a film theme, film score, and a damned fine one, but it isn’t a _song._ Where are the lyrics? Who sings it? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/33 "2004-06-23T22:57:31Z")
From the AFI’s guidelines: > [@](#): > > Music and lyrics featured in an American film that set a tone or mood, define character, advance plot and/or express the film’s themes in a manner that elevates the moving image art form. Songs may have been written and/or recorded specifically for the film or previously written and/or recorded and selected by the filmmaker to achieve the above goals. ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/34 "2004-06-23T23:07:36Z")
Although it’s true that the AFI is Satan incarnate, committed to destroying any remnant of what is truly great about American cinema in favor of Jack Valenti’s masturbatory self-congratulation, I was somewhat impressed by this list. It shows that the AFI may actually have an inkling of true appreciation for the art that it is the self-appointed guardian of. (If you haven’t already, read Jonathan Rosenbaum’s take on the AFI’s [Top 100 Movies List](http://www.chireader.com/movies/100best.html)) The top ten aren’t surprising, and I can’t disagree with the top choice. Eva Cassidy’s recording of that song is one of the finest ever. Audrey Hepburn’s recording of Moon River also shares that distinction. The rest of the top ten is somewhat distasteful, but par for the course. The first surprise is Diamond’s Are A Girl’s Best Friend, from _Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_, one of Jonathan Rosenbaum’s Top 100 American Movies. This list is to allow several more great American films recognition who were omitted rather glaringly from the AFI’s Top 100. Although the list seems to be grounded in familiarity and cinematic excellence rather than musical perfection, songs like Stormy Weather and Days Of Wine and Roses provide a good grounding in fine music. I was also surprised to see several songs from _Meet Me In St. Louis_, a Rosenabaum film and one of the best MGM musicals, also omitted rather glaringly from the Top 100. Que Sera, Sera was an interesting choice, although I suspect that it was chosen because the AFI can’t bear to leave Hitchcock off any list (not that I blame them). I was truly astonished, however, to see Fight The Power from _Do The Right Thing_, one of the most honest portrayals of racism in American Cinema. The AFI may not actually be beyond salvation here. In a break from their normal avoidance of controversy, they included Zip A Dee Doo-Dah from _Song Of The South_, which Disney has never released in America due to it’s racist overtones. They show they aren’t afraid of popular music in allowing several James Bond themes (although how fucking arrogant is that, given that James Bond movies are f^_#($#_ ENGLISH!). I was pleasantly surprised to see Springtime For Hitler and Puttin’ On The Ritz, given the lack of comedy in the Top 100 list. It was good to see _Gilda_ and _Nashville_, although there was an unforgivable lack of Rodgers and Hammerstein. How could any list of the greatest songs in film ignore You’ll Never Walk Alone, People Will Say We’re In Love, It Might As Well Be Spring, If I Loved You, What’s The Use Of Wondrin’, Edelweiss, et. al.? Although this list falls prey to the same tired Hollywood self congratulation and regurgitation of the same old films in lieu of recognizing and celebrating the true depth, diversity, scope and breadth that is the American film heritage, this list shows a lot more promise than any other list I have ever seen the AFI put out. If they can truly continue in this vein, seeking new and different films to reintroduce to the public, rather than recycle the same bland 150 titles, we may actually have a chance at the American Film Institute preserving American film. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/35 "2004-06-24T00:11:57Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#): > > Although it’s true that the AFI is Satan incarnate, committed to destroying any remnant of what is truly great about American cinema in favor of Jack Valenti’s masturbatory self-congratulation, I was somewhat impressed by this list. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/36 "2004-06-24T00:17:22Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#): > > they included Zip A Dee Doo-Dah from _Song Of The South_, which Disney has never released in America due to it’s racist overtones. Though they didn’t comment on this facet during the broadcast, to my dismay. Did “Summertime” actually become popular from the movie version of _Porgy and Bess_? I ask because, in the clip they showed, it was sung so high and operatic that I could barely make out the words or the tune. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/37 "2004-06-24T00:25:01Z")
> [@yosemite](#): > > Beethoven’s 5th? They will call that a song. No, it’s _four_ songs. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/38 "2004-06-24T00:48:01Z")
> [@Max Carnage](#): > > …tell me Pink Panther isn’t a song…rassin frassin > [@yosemite](#): > > It isn’t! Sorry, but it isn’t! It’s a film theme, film score, and a damned fine one, but it isn’t a _song._ Where are the lyrics? Who sings it? Any third grader knows that one: \*Q: What did the Pink Panther say when he stepped on an ant? A: “Dead ant. Dead ant. Dead ant dedant dedant…”\* ---
**Author:** ![Feit\_C\_Taj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@Feit\_C\_Taj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feit_C_Taj)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/39 "2004-06-24T00:53:46Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#): > > I was pleasantly surprised to see Springtime For Hitler and **Puttin’ On The Ritz** , given the lack of comedy in the Top 100 list. ITYM “'UTTINNN AWNA RIIIIIIIIZ!” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782/40 "2004-06-24T00:56:36Z")
It’s not surprising that most of the selections are “ole-timey”. Hollywood doesn’t put out too many musicals anymore. Which is a damn shame. I’m disappointed that Quincy Jones’ “Sistah” from _The Color Purple_ isn’t on the list. I love that song, as well as “God’s Trying to Tell You Something”. Why not give a shout-out to “Tomorrow” from _Annie_? Surely that’s better than “Hakuna Matata”. What about Prince’s “Purple Rain”? It’s a much better song than Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”, IMHO. Overall, the show was entertaining to watch. I know I’m PMSing because teared up several times (“The Rose”, “Rainbow Connection”, and “Stormy Weather”) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afi-top-100-film-songs/251782.md?page=3)