Personally, I was a little miffed the theme from Chaplin’s City Lights wasn’t included on the list.
My observations:
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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.
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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.
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The only real jaw-dropping odd-ball choice, in my opinion, was that song from High Noon. What was with that???
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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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.)
Great, you made me click the link. Here I thought Hudson Hawk was going to get some props from AFI…
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 
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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
Hey, look! “It Had to Be You” debuted in 1989, in When Harry Met Sally! Well, whuddayaknow!
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. 
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, 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!)
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?
From the AFI’s guidelines:
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)
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.
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.
No, it’s four songs.
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…”*
ITYM “'UTTINNN AWNA RIIIIIIIIZ!” 
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”)