Singin' & Swingin'

The American Film Institute released it's list of Top 100 film songs on their CBS special "AFI's 100 YEARS...100 SONGS", and as much as I would like to take exception to the results, I just can't find many mistakes. My only exceptions would be a few tunes that I don't think are old enough to have warranted Legacy status. The Legacy category is defined by the AFI as "Songs that resonate “across the century”, enriching America's film heritage and captivating artists and audiences today." Nine songs that placed in the Top 100 came after 1990, but the ones I take exception to are: #93 Lose Yourself, 8 MILE, 2002 #98 All That Jazz, CHICAGO 2002 #85 Come What May, MOULIN ROUGE! 2001 Not because they don't fit the other qualifications, I just think that the list should have stopped short of the 21st century. A minor quibble. After the Top 10, placement of the other songs is pretty subjective & it really only matters that those songs got on the list. It is almost impossible to argue the Top 5: 1 Over the Rainbow, WIZARD OF OZ, THE 1939 2 As Time Goes By, CASABLANCA 1942 3 Singin' in the Rain, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN 1952 4 Moon River, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S 1961 5 White Christmas, HOLIDAY INN 1942 The second five, I have some reservation about their placement, but only from personal taste, which of course is subjective. With that project done, the AFI needs to come up with a list of songs that were more popular than their films, of which were many. I am not including songs that were hits before their inclusion into a film, that list would be way too long but I offer these tunes as a starting point. “Call Me Irresponsible” from the 1963 Jackie Gleason stiff, “Papa's Delicate Condition”. “Old Devil Moon” form Fred Astaire's final effort, 1969's “Finnian's Rainbow” (I'm probably one of the few people that actually loves this film) Louis Armstrong’s “We Have All The Time In The World” from the lowest grossing but I think, one of the best James Bond films, 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", with George Lazenby as 007 & the best Bond WOMAN, Diana Rigg as his doomed wife. And almost every song from 1969's Shirley MacLaine under achiever, “Sweet Charity”. Great songs but no one went to see these films.