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. There have been numerous cover versions since, from artists as diverse as Eric Clapton , John Martyn and Ariana Grande. Their song for Edwards became a jazz standard, covered by Dave Brubeck and Louis Armstrong, among others. Who would have thought that a song written for an Abbott and Costello comedy would become a wartime classic? Patty, Maxene and Laverne Andrews based their early style on the close harmonising of The Boswell Sisters , and the public loved it.
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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.
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Which, of course, is subjective. In some cases, these soundtrack songs are now more famous than the films they came from. Never let go. And that when you find that person, you pull a real Rachel Green and, despite having a life elsewhere, get off the plane. While we know stars — Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova — went on to fall in love and form the two-piece folk band, the indie hit Once offered a realish glimpse into the makings of their music and of their then-relationship. The thing is, the songs came before the film. So where most soundtracks become the platform for burgeoning indie acts, it was Once itself that brought legitimacy to a band that actually existed before its leads sought to tell a story. Which made their breakup even sadder.
The movie world and the music charts have been close pals since the beginning, and some soundtracks and cast recordings are among the most successful albums of all time. It's not unusual for a song from a film to break out and become a hit in its own right, and sometimes they can go all the way to the top. As we await the imminent star-studded collaboration from the new Charlie's Angels movie, featuring Lana Del Rey, Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande, we look at a selection of songs released to give a movie a boost that hit Number 1! To misquote Lady Gaga herself: you can have positions in the Top , but it only takes 1 to be a Number 1. They could take comfort, however, from the fact that Sam was definitely the first artist to have a Number 1 with a Bond theme and, even more bravely, despite not mentioning the title of the movie in the song at all.
