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Song of the Day #5,700: ‘Silver Joy’ – Damien Jurado

As part of my 2023 movie wrap-up, this week I’ll be presenting my own nominations for the acting and directing categories (if I ran the Oscars). First up is Best Supporting Actor.

This was a very good movie year, with so many films jockeying for the top spots on my year-end list and so many performances worthy of singling out. In the interest of spreading the love, I’ve tried to lean toward performances that haven’t been recognized by the Academy when compiling my acting nominations. In some cases, though, I had to go with the favorites.

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Song of the Day #5,699: ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ – The Beatles

Throwing back to the week of February 8, 1964, we find a charming young quartet known as The Beatles reaching Billboard’s top spot for the first time with ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand.’

This song launched Beatlemania in the U.S., selling millions of copies and hanging on to #1 on the Hot 100 for seven weeks. It was eventually replaced by the band’s ‘She Loves You,’ which was already a hit in the UK.

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Song of the Day #5,698: ‘Secret Love’ – Doris Day

Throwing back to the week of February 6, 1954, we find that songs clung to the top spot of Billboard’s charts right from the beginning.

At #1 that week was Eddie Fisher’s ‘Oh! My Pa-Pa,’ just as it had been every week of that year. In the second spot was Dean Martin’s ‘That’s Amore,’ another repeat.

At #3 was a song that had been moving up the chart for weeks on it’s way to an eventual #1 berth: Doris Day’s ‘Secret Love.’

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Song of the Day #5,697: ‘Maneater’ – Andrew Barth Feldman

Most of my favorite musical movie moments come from movies in my top 10 or top 20, but every year I seem to come across at least one standout moment from a movie that’s otherwise forgettable.

Last year it was Jenny Slate’s sublime performance of ‘Suddenly Seymour‘ in the streaming romcom I Want You Back. This year it’s a scene from the Jennifer Lawrence sex comedy No Hard Feelings.

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Song of the Day #5,696: ‘Always On My Mind’ – Pet Shop Boys

Writer-director Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers is another movie with multiple memorable musical moments.

The obvious pick might be Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘The Power of Love,’ which bookends the film and scores one of last year’s most powerful and poignant endings. Or Blur’s ‘Death of a Party,’ used to great effect during a pivotal nightclub sequence.

But I’m going with the Pet Shop Boys cover of ‘Always On My Mind,’ which soundtracks yet another incredibly moving scene.

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