Movie Music: Oscars 2007

As far as the Oscars go, Tuesday morning's nominations brought a mixture of good news/bad news for Enchanted composer Alan Menken. Sure, he and co-songwriter Stephen Schwartz netted three of the five slots for Original Song (only the fourth time in history that has happened -- the first was Menken's own Beauty and the Beast). However, he was overlooked in the Original Score category. Seems the fickle Academy music branch decided the very songs they honored with nominations in one category made his work in the other ineligible (they give, they take ...).

At least Menken had those consolation nods. Eddie Vedder's Into the Wild score was discounted for the same reason, while his Golden Globe winning tune "Guaranteed" (which seemed, well, guaranteed for a nomination) was snubbed. And if you're wondering what happened to Jonny Greenwood's There Will Be Blood score (already hailed with several critic awards), it was dropped from the running for containing pre-existing music.

Back to the songs, the following links will take you to YouTube videos of the five nominees so you can judge for yourself which tune is tops:

• “Falling Slowly” from Once -- Music and lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova; performed by Hansard and Irglova.
• “Happy Working Song” from Enchanted -- Music by Alan Menken, lyric by Stephen Schwartz; performed by Amy Adams.
• “Raise It Up” from August Rush -- Music and lyric by Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas; performed by Jamia Simone Nash and the Impact Repertory Theater.
• “So Close” from Enchanted -- Music by Menken, lyric by Schwartz; performed by Jon McLaughlin.
• “That’s How You Know” from Enchanted -- Music by Menken, lyric by Schwartz; performed by Adams.