The Best Song Podcast

The Oscar nominees for 2003 featured a toe-tapping song from a groundbreaking animated movie, a sincere love song from a very funny mockumentary, and a song that closed out one of the most popular trilogies of all time. Two songs from the Civil War drama Cold Mountain were also in the mix, written by Sting and Elvis Costello. A year removed from the Oscar-winning "Lose Yourself," none of these songs were commercial hits, but they still made a big impact for their movies.

Eminem made history with his hit song "Lose Yourself," writing the first rap song to be nominated for the Oscar. The controversial rapper wasn't the first choice for producer Brian Grazer's film about a wannabe rapper, but Grazer couldn't take his eyes off the superstar, and 8 Mile gave Eminem the opportunity to act and give us one of his signature songs. His competition for the Oscar was stiff, with compositions by Paul Simon and U2 in the mix. With the Miramax machine behind them, U2 looked like they had the best chances of winning the 2002 Original Song Oscar. Find out who won on this episode!

Randy Newman was still winless in the Original Song Oscar category after seven losses, and his song "If I Didn't Have You" for the Pixar movie Monsters, Inc. was going to put him in rare company if it didn't nab him the Oscar. The song didn't get much recognition before the Academy Awards, so Newman was looking like song nomination number eight was not going to turn into a win. Check out his competition on this episode, as well as the two songs with "dream" in the title that missed out on an Oscar nomination.

Randy Newman was looking for his first Oscar win with his seventh songwriting nomination, this time for the comedic song "A Fool In Love." He had some competition from three great singer-songwriters, as Bob Dylan, Bjork, and Sting earned their first nominations for writing movie music. Find out which music superstar took home the 2000 Original Song Oscar on this episode, and learn more about the process of bringing these songs to the screen.

The five Oscar-nominated songs from 1999 were all worthy of winning the big award, including the latest song from a Disney animated movie, one from Pixar's sequel to Toy Story, a raunchy song about parental anger, and a song by *NSYNC praising a teacher's love. Host Jeff Commings talks about the songwriters responsible for these songs, and why Madonna missed out on yet another chance to get an Oscar nomination.

The year after the juggernaut Oscar-winning song "My Heart Will Go On," songwriters had a high standard to reach for the songs featured in films released in 1998. From Stephen Schwartz and Randy Newman to Diane Warren and Carole Bayer Sager, the nominated tunesmiths offered the Academy five nominees that gave us no frontrunner status for the big award.

The juggernaut song "My Heart Will Go On" was crowned an Oscar winner the second that Titanic made its theatrical debut, but the other four songs nominated with it for the 1997 Original Song Oscar were no duds. Host Jeff Commings brings you the stories behind these songs, and the songwriters who created them.

Host Jeff Commings talks with songwriters Jud Friedman and Allan Rich about almost not having their song "For the First Time" appear in the movie One Fine Day (thanks to Rod Stewart), and learns from Tim Rice the process behind putting a new song into the iconic Evita score and getting an Oscar nomination for it. Space Jam featured many songs that made for a popular soundtrack, including the R. Kelly tune "I Believe I Can Fly," which was a big hit in 1996 when all the world knew about R. Kelly was that he was a great singer.

The members of the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences split the original score category in two in 1995, but the rules for original song stayed the same. Pop songs and traditional movie songs were still in the running for the biggest movie award, including a chance for Alan Menken to earn a record-tying fourth Original Song Oscar. His competition included Oscar winners John Williams, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and Bruce Springsteen, all of whom wrote some compelling movie songs.

Tim Rice returns to the show to offer a masterclass in songwriting as he talks about writing the lyrics for the three Oscar-nominated songs from the animated movie The Lion King. He details how the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" changed and why writing a song for a warthog shouldn't feel much different from writing for "the wife of an Argentinian dictator."