From the moment Al Jolson started warbling on screen in , songs in movies have found a treasured place in the popular consciousness. The song lights up a memorable scene during which a tuxedoed Astaire declares his love for Rogers dancing elegantly in a feathery white gown. The song has also been covered numerous times down the years, including by jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on their album Ella And Louis. But when it was sung in the film version by Paul Robeson, his moving baritone voice — and edgier interpretation — took the song to a new level. The song was almost cut from the film, though, because MGM thought the opening Kansas sequence was too long.
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Subscriber Account active since. A film's soundtrack is one of the most important parts of the movie-going experience, whether we realize it or not as we're watching. The right music helps set the scene, sparking emotions from the viewer, even telling a story all on its own, elevating our experience and bringing us into the world being shown before us. But some songs, whether specifically made for the movie or just perfectly added to an integral scene, seem to transcend the films they were featured in. Others become inextricably linked to their films, becoming a part of pop culture history for generations to come. These are some of the most iconic movie songs of all time, in no particular order.
"Footloose" by Kenny Loggins ("Footloose")
It is performed by the Broadway company's original Glinda , Kristin Chenoweth , on the original Broadway cast recording. The song is about a popular girl Glinda trying to help her unpopular roommate Elphaba become more popular. It is sung by the character Glinda. While writing the song, Schwartz imagined one of "those cheerleaders" - "She was the most popular girl at school, and she always went out with the captain of the football team.
Movies and music have been a natural combination ever since sound was first added to moving images. Whether a film is a tear-jerking drama, an action-packed thriller or a side-splitting comedy, the right song at the right moment will always elevate the impact of a scene. Not only that, many songs written for films have stood on their own, with the popularity of some eclipsing the movies that inspired them. With the 86th Academy Awards approaching, here's a look back at the 50 biggest Hot hits that arose from being featured on the silver screen. This ranking is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot chart. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years. Beyonce's song was supposed to be on the soundtrack to "The Pink Panther" remake in which she co-starred with Steve Martin. But instead the track played during the movie's closing credits and gained lots of popularity with a Hype Williams-directed music video. But the song's biggest success came in when Midler's rendition played over the tear-jerking scene in "Beaches," and won both Song and Record of the Year Grammys.
