1989 Best Original Song - A Love Letter to Howard Ashman

WON AND SHOULD'VE WON: "Under the Sea," The Little Mermaid

I believe the late Howard Ashman is, quite merely, ane of the greatest and most influential lyricists of all-fourth dimension.

Ashman, who initially left an immense impression non on the big screen simply on stage from the tardily-'70s, through the mid-'80s, with colorful, idiosyncratic efforts similar God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Smile and Trivial Shop of Horrors, did not make his presence known in the world of film until just a few mere years prior to his tragic expiry from AIDS complications in 1991.

But what an touch on he did leave in those final years.

Afterward assisting on the soundtrack for Disney'south pocket-sized 1988 release Oliver & Company, Ashman partnered with the comparably spectacular Alan Menken to score The Lilliputian Mermaid, which (some folks forget) marked quite a comeback for Walt Disney Pictures, a studio and so yearning for a big, fat hit after a lengthy dry out spell.

Following their peachy success on The Little Mermaid, Ashman and Menken would go on to score Beauty and the Brute, the starting time animated picture show to garner an Oscar nomination in Best Picture. That picture show would besides triumph for the duo in All-time Original Song, though Ashman'due south victory was a posthumous i, having died 2 weeks prior to the anniversary. Ashman's final nomination would actually come another year subsequently, for his work on Aladdin'southward "Friend Like Me."

The touch on Ashman'southward contributions had on the revival of Disney studios and on futurity composers cannot be understated. Songs he equanimous - the likes of "Under the Bounding main," "Be Our Guest" and "Beauty and the Fauna" - are non just some of the most iconic and popular of the Disney catalogue but among the almost beloved film songs always.

But information technology's really Ashman'due south sweeter, more subtle work that's always gotten to me.

I think of Little Shop'southward "Somewhere That's Dark-green," with those heartrending lyrics about inner dazzler and dreams of a flick-perfect life out of Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, performed to the heavens past Ellen Greene. I besides think of The Little Mermaid'southward glorious "Office of Your Earth," which, even though it somehow wasn't Oscar-nominated here, I consider the greatest of all Disney songs. Performed by the brilliant Jodi Benson, it'southward actually quite reminiscent of "Somewhere That'south Green," a dreamy ballad that's equal parts hopeful and somber and all-around breathtaking.

We are so blest to have lived in a world where Howard Ashman made music.

Now, as for 1989 Best Original Song, it's pretty much a slam dunk for "Under the Ocean," which, while no "Part of Your World," is notwithstanding a boisterous, exuberant delight, whole-heartedly worthy of victory. The other Little Mermaid nominee, "Kiss the Girl," is a nice ane likewise, just hardly leaves the same level of impression. I'grand also mildly fond of Chances Are's "After All," the agreeably corny Cher-Peter Cetera duet from the underrated Cybill Shepherd-Robert Downey, Jr. dramedy.

The remaining two nominees are so dull and unremarkable they're not really worth discussing, even though "I Honey to Run into You Smile" was composed by Randy Newman and "The Girl Who Used to Exist Me" marked another Hamlisch-Bergman-Bergman effort. All of these typically fine artists were completely asleep at the bike here.

Why couldn't the Academy accept dumped Newman and the old The Style We Were squad for a couple of Prince tunes off the kinky Batman soundtrack?

The Oscar-winners ranked (thus far)...

  1. "Over the Rainbow," The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  2. "The Way You Look Tonight," Swing Time (1936)
  3. "High Hopes," A Pigsty in the Head (1959)
  4. "Whatever Will Be, Will Exist (Que Sera, Sera)," The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
  5. "Mona Lisa," Helm Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  6. "Baby, It's Common cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  7. "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," Dirty Dancing (1987)
  8. "The Windmills of Your Mind," The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
  9. "The Way We Were," The Way We Were (1973)
  10. "Let the River Run," Working Girl (1988)
  11. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
  12. "Under the Body of water," The Picayune Mermaid (1989)
  13. "High Noon (Do Not Abdicate Me, On My Darlin')," Loftier Apex (1952)
  14. "I'm Piece of cake," Nashville (1975)
  15. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  16. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  17. "Fame," Fame (1980)
  18. "Theme from Shaft," Shaft (1971)
  19. "Surreptitious Love," Calamity Jane (1953)
  20. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  21. "Moon River," Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
  22. "Have My Jiff Away," Top Gun (1986)
  23. "When Y'all Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  24. "Cheers for the Retention," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  25. "Lullaby of Broadway," Aureate Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  26. "Zilch-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the Southward (1947)
  27. "Flashdance...What a Feeling," Flashdance (1983)
  28. "Arthur'southward Theme (Best That You Can Do)," Arthur (1981)
  29. "Concluding Dance," Thank God It's Fri (1978)
  30. "Days of Wine and Roses," Days of Vino and Roses (1962)
  31. "For All We Know," Lovers and Other Strangers (1970)
  32. "All the Mode," The Joker Is Wild (1957)
  33. "It Might Besides Be Spring," State Off-white (1945)
  34. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  35. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  36. "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," Love Is a Many-Splendored Matter (1955)
  37. "It Goes Like It Goes," Norma Rae (1979)
  38. "Born Free," Built-in Free (1966)
  39. "Never on Sunday," Never on Sunday (1960)
  40. "I Just Called to Say I Love You," The Woman in Ruddy (1984)
  41. "Up Where We Belong," An Officeholder and a Gentleman (1982)
  42. "3 Coins in the Fountain," Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
  43. "Chim Chim Cher-ee," Mary Poppins (1964)
  44. "Call Me Irresponsible," Papa's Delicate Condition (1963)
  45. "Evergreen (Theme from A Star Is Born)," A Star Is Born (1976)
  46. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  47. "You Light Up My Life," You Lite Up My Life (1977)
  48. "Gigi," Gigi (1958)
  49. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  50. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Nuptials (1937)
  51. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)
  52. "Talk to the Animals," Doctor Dolittle (1967)
  53. "The Shadow of Your Smile," The Sandpiper (1965)
  54. "Say You, Say Me," White Nights (1985)
  55. "The Morning Subsequently," The Poseidon Take chances (1972)
  56. "We May Never Honey Like This Again," The Towering Inferno (1974)