2001 Oscar Best Original Song: Revisited

The nominees for Best Original Song at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards include two songs from “Emilia Pérez,” an original Elton John number from the documentary for his Farewell Yellow Brick Road concert tour, “Like a Bird” from “Sing Sing,” not to be confused with (God help us all) “Like a Bird” by Tiffany T*ump, and “The Journey” by Diane Warren from Tyler Perry’s “The Six Triple Eight.” This is Warren’s 16th Oscar nomination, five shy of Meryl Streep’s 21 Oscar nominations, which are 33 short of John Williams’s 54 and 38 short of Walt Disney’s 59. So, Warren has a long way to go to approach the record, but still, 16 is an impressive haul, even if she’s never won, recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2022 after getting stiffed all those years. Were all her nominations truly earned?

Gees, I don’t know, and I wasn’t about to scour every year to find out. And though I originally intended to go back to the scene of her first nomination in 1987 for “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from “Mannequin,” which stood no chance in the year of “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life” from “Dirty Dancing,” well, in my Best Original Song revisitations, I had already traveled back in time to the 80s, as well as the 90s, and so I figured it was time to bring this pointless exercise into the current century. When Warren was nominated in 2001, did she deserve it given what else might have been nominated that year, and whatever did win, should it have, at least if I, and I alone, were the nominating committee? Let’s find out!

2001 Best Original Song Oscar Nominees & Winner (in bold):

“Until...” from Kate & Leopold – Music and Lyrics by Sting

“If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters, Inc. – Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman

“May It Be” from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Music and Lyrics by Enya, Nicky Ryan, and Roma Ryan

“There You’ll Be” from Pearl Harbor – Music and Lyrics by Diane Warren

“Vanilla Sky” from Vanilla Sky – Music and Lyrics by Paul McCartney

Of course, we are required to remember right up front that Best Original Song is strictly limited to original songs in whatever byzantine way the Academy defines originality, eliminating old pop hits used in movies which should be a category unto itself but, as always, do not get me started. That means “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star” by Linda Scott in “Mulholland Drive” and “These Days” by Nico in “The Royal Tenenbaums” are ineligible. Add “69 Police” by David Holmes in “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Beat It” by Michael Jackson in “Zoolander,” and Jamie O’Neal’s version of “All by Myself” in “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and, as always, my God, what a category. Alas. 

The unexpected box office hit “Save the Last Dance” hearkens back to the glorious era of Julia Stiles: Movie Star just as the movie itself hearkened back to the golden era of the movie theme song with Fredro Starr and Jill Scott’s “Shining Through” which itself hearkened back to (borrowed from) Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” which is going to touch any Gen-Xer’s soul. As such, it takes the place of Warren’s “Pearl Harbor” theme. Sorry, Diane, you’ll have to settle for 15 nominations. 

At the 2014 Tony Awards, Neil Patrick Harris gave Sting a lap dance during a performance of “Sugar Baby” from “Hedwig and The Angry Inch.” And though the 74th Academy Awards might have finally been ready to give Oscars to two African Americans for leading roles, it probably was not ready for John Cameron Mitchell to give Jack Nicholson a lap dance on live TV. But that’s not my problem. I wish it would have happened, and even if it didn’t, “Sugar Baby” from the movie version of “Hedwig and The Angry Inch” still should have been nominated. And in an ironic twist that I think the writer of “Every Breath You Take” could appreciate, it replaces Sting’s “Until...” and knocks him down to three Oscar nominations all-time.

I’ll be honest, I am desperate to give Natalie Imbruglia a retroactive Oscar nomination for “Cold Air,” her contribution to the “Y Tu Mamá También” soundtrack, but then I re-listened to Enya’s nominated song. And while I might contend the LOTR trilogy is terribly overrated (to paraphrase Elaine Benes talking about “The English Patient,” stop telling your stupid story about the stupid ring and just throw it in the fire already), Enya is not. She stays. 

Paul McCartney had earned both an Oscar nomination and a win thirty-one years before in 1970 for “Let It Be.” But do you know who has never been nominated, before 2001 or after? Her majesty Mariah Carey, that’s who, the same woman who remains but one elusive #1 hit away from tying, ahem, The Beatles for most all-time. And while “Glitter” was a cultural punching bag, set those preconceived notions aside and the fact is, “Want You” should have been a hit itself. A #1 hit? Eh, I’m not sure, maybe more like #26, but a hit, nevertheless, and imagine Mariah following Enya at that Academy ceremony. 

Newman’s victory that year was a big deal given his scads of prior nods and no victory to show for it. You can see how big a deal it was in the reaction after his name is announced and I hate to take that away from him. But he has since gone on to win again, in 2010 for “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3,” whereas the late Adam Schlesinger was nominated only once in 1997 for penning the title track to “That Thing You Do!,” losing to Celine Dion’s unbeatable Rose and Jack ballad. And so, with the benefit of hindsight, but also with objective analysis vis-a-vis their two songs and every other eligible song, it is absolutely clear in retrospect that the Schlesinger penned “Pretend to Be Nice” from “Josie and the Pussycats” was the real Best Original Song in 2001. [Bangs gavel.]