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Song of the Day #3,522: ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ – Bruce Springsteen

I’m skipping Random Weekends this week (and for awhile longer, as you’ll learn soon) in order to close out February with the rest of my Best Original Song posts. Over the next five days I’ll feature some of my favorite Academy Award-winning songs.

Bruce Springsteen has been nominated for two Oscars, one for the title track of 1995’s Dead Man Walking and two years earlier for ‘Streets of Philadelphia,’ from the late Jonathan Demme’s film Philadelphia. Springsteen took home the trophy that year against a relatively weak field (which included another track from the same film, Neil Young’s ‘Philadelphia’).

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Song of the Day #3,521: ‘Remember Me’ – Gael Garcia Bernal

THe touching ‘Remember Me’ from Pixar’s Coco rounds out the nominations in this year’s Best Original Song category. I’ve written about this song already, during a week of my favorite musical movie moments of 2017, so it’s no secret that it’s a favorite.

Earlier this week I wrote that The Greatest Showman is the only true musical nominated in this category, but I suppose one could argue that Coco earns the label. It’s certainly the closest to a musical that Pixar has come to date.

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Song of the Day #3,520: ‘Mighty River’ – Mary J. Blige

Mary J. Blige made Oscar history last month, becoming the only performer ever nominated as an actor and Best Song composer in the same year. Blige earned a Supporting Actress nod for her soulful turn in Dee Rees’ Mudbound, and co-wrote the movie’s end credits song with Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson.

Mudbound was one of my favorite 2017 films, and one that I bet would have fared even better in the Oscar nominations had it received a proper theatrical release and not been confined to Netflix for most of the country.

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Song of the Day #3,519: ‘Stand Up For Something’ – Andra Day and Common

Our third Oscar-nominated song comes from the biopic Marshall, starring Black Panther as the nation’s first African-American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall.

The song is performed by soul singer Andra Day and rapper Common, and written by Common and 9-time Best Song nominee Diane Warren. Warren has never won the statue despite her run of nominations, while Common took the prize when he was last nominated, for the song ‘Glory’ in 2015’s Selma.

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Song of the Day #3,518: ‘This is Me’ – The Greatest Showman cast

Surprise hit The Greatest Showman is the only musical nominated in the Best Original Song category this year. (You could make an argument that another nominated film is a musical, but I would argue that you are wrong, and I would be right).

This is one of those movies scoffed at by critics (55% on the Tomatometer!) but loved by audiences. It has hit a nerve, cleaning up at the box office and topping the album charts.

I believe today’s nominated song, which most clearly states one of the film’s central themes, is the key to The Greatest Showman‘s success.

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