The Great Movie Songs Oscar Totally Ignored
5 Minute VIDEO SAMPLERS
Part 1(1934-1939)
Part 2(1940-1959)
The precious legacy of Hollywood´s golden years is a living library of films-bad, so-so, good, great. Some works, highly honored at the time, now appear dated while some, overlooked and thankfully preserved, have proven to be lasting treasures. The same applies to the huge catalogue of songs written specifically for films, only a handful of which were given a prestigious nod by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences, a few nominees each year including one winner.
OSCAR SNUBS provides two full programs of great, enduring film songs totally ignored by Oscar.
Part One (1934-1939) also includes songs written for the early talkies (1927 thru 1934 when the Best Song Oscar category was first included) continuing to what is considered Hollywood´s peak year, 1939. Among these overlooked gems: “Cocktails For Two,” “I Only Have Eyes For You,” “Let´s Fall In Love,” “I´m In The Mood For Love,” “You Are My Lucky Star,” “I Won´t Dance,” “Isn´t It A Lovely Day,” “When I Grow Too Old To Dream,” “Pick Yourself Up,” “Let´s Face The Music And Dance,” “Easy To Love,” “Let´s Call The Whole Thing Off,” “A Foggy Day,” “Hooray For Hollywood,” “Love Is Here To Stay”…..
Part Two (1940-1964) continues on through the War Years finishing with the teenage Baby Boomer era by which time, things had changed so drastically that the classic Popular Songs as generations had known and loved them were no more: “I Don´t Want To Walk Without You, Baby,” “You Stepped Out Of A Dream,” “At Last,” “I Remember You,” “I´m Old Fashioned,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Don´t Fence Me In,” “A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening.” “It´s A Grand Night For Singing,” “Laura,” “Put The Blame On Mame,” “You Make Me Feel So Young,” “Steppin´ Out With My Baby,” “When I Fall In Love,” “That´s Entertainment,” “Theme From Picnic,” “I Remember It Well,” “A Taste of Honey”….
The list goes on, and luckily these songs do as well, defying musical fashions, continuing to delight us…despite being “poor relations” at inception. Added proof of what a wondrous era it must have been to produce, as a matter of routine, such songs!
If you would like to engage Fred Miller for one of his Lectures-in-Song, please contact him directly at any time. For a full listing of all Lectures, click here.
Fred Miller’s Lectures-In-Song comprise a series of solo programs, each an historical, anecdotal and musical profile of some great personality or important aspect of American Popular Song. These Lectures are delivered by singer/pianist/narrator Miller at the piano, and each reflects his lifetime passion and appreciation for great music. He studied classical piano in his hometown of Albuquerque from ages 7-15 but early on gave up any notion of music as a profession. At that time, Fred assumed a musical career was either one devoted to the rigid discipline of classical music or being a freewheeling rock star, and he accurately decided he had no aptitude for either. However, at age 22, upon hearing Ella Fitzgerald sing Cole Porter, he found his calling and life’s mission.
Through the Seventies and Eighties, Miller studied and absorbed in minute detail the life and times and songs of nearly all the great American composers and lyricists who thrived during Broadway & Hollywood’s Golden Age between the two World Wars. In 1987, he founded Silver Dollar Productions in order to produce operettas, dramas, musicals and small cabarets. Silver Dollar Productions required ensemble casts, props, costumes and, most significantly, the challenges of publicity and selling tickets, and for a dozen busy years, the company presented an unbroken string of varied and highly lauded performances.
In 1999, Miller was simultaneously underwritten by both his local Hunterdon County Library and the Art Alliance of Philadelphia to present a series of six solo Lectures-In-Song, each devoted to one of the premiere Broadway/Hollywood songwriters: George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen.
In presenting history, biography and psychology while sitting at a piano singing the superlative songs of his heroes, Miller has found a single performing medium that utilizes most of his intellectual and musical passions.The list of Lectures-In-Song that began with six in 1999 is now more than seventy(and growing!), a joyful tribute to the boundlessly rich field of American Popular Song.