The Shadow of Your Smile

By Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster
1965

One of the last of the great Academy Award winning movie songs of the traditional "songbook" era, this instant classic by arranger/bandleader Mandel and prolific lyricist Webster also won the Grammy for Song of the Year. Introduced in the Liz Taylor/Richard Burton film The Sandpiper by Mandel's orchestra, it was first recorded lyrically by singer Astrud Gilberto. Following the film, there was an explosion of recordings of the song throughout the late 1960s, with many artists of the old-school, lost in the burgeoning rock and roll era, latching on to it for its melodic beauty and poignant words. The one to be most successful with it at the time was Tony Bennett. Today, it remains a popular selection among instrumental groups and jazz bands, and was even recorded in 1992 by British actor Ian McShane.

Lyrics:

One day we walked along the sand
One day in early spring
You held a piper in your hand
To mend its broken wing
Now I'll remember many a day
And many a lonely mile
The echo of a piper's song
The shadow of a smile

The shadow of your smile
When you are gone
Will color all my dreams
And light the dawn
Look into my eyes
My love and see
All the lovely things
You are to me

Our wistful little star
Was far too high
A teardrop kissed your lips
And so did I
Now when I remember spring
All the joy that love can bring
I will be remembering
The shadow of your smile

Recorded By:

Peggy Lee
Ray Conniff
Sammy Davis Jr. & Laurindo Almeida
Ferrante & Teicher
Barbra Streisand

Lullaby of Broadway

Harry Warren and his Oscar

By Harry Warren and Al Dubin
1935

In light of last night's Academy Awards, today we're taking a look at the second tune to ever win the Oscar for Best Original Song (the first being "The Continental" in 1934). Introduced by Wini Shaw in Gold Diggers of 1935, "Lullaby of Broadway" was such an instant classic that later it was even used as background music in the Bette Davis film, Special Agent. With a peppy melody and lyrics that celebrate the wild Broadway nightlife, it's no wonder it captured the attention of Academy voters--even if Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek" may have been the more deserving nominee that year...

Lyrics:

Come on along and listen to
The lullaby of Broadway
The hip hooray and ballyhoo
The lullaby of Broadway
The rumble of a subway train
The rattle of the taxis
The daffodils who entertain
At Angelo's and Maxi's

When a Broadway baby says good night
It's early in the morning
Manhattan babies don't sleep tight
Until the dawn

Good night, baby
Good night, the milkman's on his way
Sleep tight, baby
Sleep tight, let's call it a day

The band begins to go to town
And everyone goes crazy
You rock a bye your baby round
'Til everything gets hazy
Hush a bye, I'll buy you this and that
You hear a daddy saying
And baby goes home to her flat
To sleep all day

Good night, baby
Good night, the milkman's on his way
Sleep tight, baby
Sleep tight, let's call it a day

Listen to the lullaby 
Of old Broadway!

Recorded By:

Tony Bennett
Ella Fitzgerald
Bette Midler
The Andrew Sisters
Doris Day

The Windmills of Your Mind

By Michel Legrand, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman
1968

In honor of the great composer Michel Legrand, who passed away last Saturday at the age of 86, I'm spotlighting the song that was perhaps rivaled only by "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" as his greatest hit. Written for the soundtrack of the Steve McQueen heist film The Thomas Crown Affair at the request of director Norman Jewison, it began life as a French song with lyrics by Eddy Marnay. Husband-wife lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman were brought in, and handpicked the haunting, circular melody from among Legrand's numerous compositions, adding lyrics meant to reflect the mental turmoil of the film's main character. Introduced in the movie by Noel Harrison, it won the Oscar for Best Original Song, and was performed by Sting for the 1999 Thomas Crown Affair remake.

Lyrics:

Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that's turning running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that you said?
Lovers walking along a shore and leave their footprints in the sand
Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?
Pictures hanging in a hallway and the fragment of a song
Half remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair!

Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
As the images unwind, like the circles that you find 
In the windmills of your mind!

Recorded By:

Jose Feliciano
Dusty Springfield
Vic Damone
Jack Jones
Petula Clark

Secret Love

By Sammy Fain & Paul Francis Webster
1953

An Academy Award-winner from the closing years of classic pop era, it was written for and introduced by the lovely Doris Day in her starring role in Calamity Jane. Ms. Day also recorded a commercial version of the song the year after the movie came out. It remains one of the most beautiful tunes to ever snare an Oscar, from an age when winning the award for a song actually meant something.

Lyrics:

Once I had a secret love
That lived within the heart of me.
All too soon my secret love
Became impatient to be free.

So I told a friendly star
The way that dreamers often do.
Just how wonderful you are
And why I'm so in love with you.

Now I shout it from the highest hills.
Even told the golden daffodils.
At last my heart's an open door,
And my secret love's no secret anymore.

Recorded By:

Mandy Moore
Frank Sinatra
Sinead O'Connor
George Michael
Anne Murray

More

By Riz Ortolani, Nino Oliviero & Norman Newell
1962

An Academy-award winning song with a strange story. It started as an instrumental entitled "Ti Guardero nel Cuore", featured in the exploitation mockumentary Mondo Cane. Later, English lyrics were added by Newell, and the song became a highly popular new standard of the 1960s. Ortolani would later compose the eerily beautiful theme for Cannibal Holocaust, one of the most disturbing films ever made.

Lyrics:

More than the greatest love the world has known,
This is the love I give to you, alone.
More than the simple words I try to say,
I only live to love you more each day.

More than you'll ever know,
My arms long to hold you so.
My life will be in your keeping,
Waking, sleeping, laughing, weeping.

Longer than always is a long, long time.
But far beyond forever, you'll be mine.
I know I never lived before,
And my heart is very sure
No one else could love you more.

Recorded By:

Steve Lawrence
Frank Sinatra
Nat King Cole
Martha & The Vandellas
Della Reese

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

By Sammy Fain & Paul Francis Webster
1955

This was Fain & Webster's second composition to win the Oscar, following "Secret Love". It was featured in the film of the same, and later recorded by The Four Aces, who took it to #1 on the charts. A sweeping romantic epic, it is proof that great film songs were still being written even as the era of rock 'n roll was being born.

Lyrics:

Love is a many-splendored thing
It's the April rose that only grows in the early spring
Love is nature's way of giving a reason to be living
The golden crown that makes a man a king

Once on a high and windy hill
In the morning mist two lovers kissed and the world stood still
Then your fingers touched my silent heart and taught it how to sing
Yes, true love's a many-splendored thing

Recorded By:

Frank Sinatra
Andy Williams
Barry Manilow
Ringo Starr
Don Cornell

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY FROM STANDARD OF THE DAY...

Moon River

By Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer
1961

Winning the Oscar for Best Original Song (in one of the last years in which that meant something), this tune was responsible for rejuvenating Mercer's career after the rise of rock 'n' roll had derailed it some years earlier. Introduced in Breakfast at Tiffany's by Audrey Hepburn, it became Andy Williams' theme song after the crooner sang it at the 1962 Academy Awards ceremony. An inlet in Mercer's hometown of Savannah, Georgia was named Moon River in his honor.

Lyrics:

Moon river, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way

Two drifters, off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end, waitin' 'round the bend,
My huckleberry friend, moon river, and me.

Recorded By:

Paul Anka
Louis Armstrong
Vic Damone
Vince Guaraldi
Johnny Mathis

Days of Wine and Roses

By Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer
1962

A late addition to the popular songbook, "Days of Wine and Roses" was written for the Blake Edwards film of the same name (starring Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon), in which it was played by Mancini's orchestra. It won the 1962 Oscar for Best Original Song. And in case you were wondering, the title phrase originates from the 1896 poem "Vitae Summa Brevis" by English writer Ernest Dowson.

Lyrics:

The days of wine and roses
Laugh and run away--
Like a child at play--
Through a meadowland toward a closing door,
A door marked "nevermore,"
That wasn't there before.

The lonely night discloses
Just a passing breeze,
Filled with memories
Of the golden smile that introduced me to
The days of wine and roses, and you.

Recorded By:

Andy Williams
Perry Como
Frank Sinatra
Diana Krall
Nancy Wilson