What other songs have become immortal?

[DeaconKC]

Just finished watching "Casablanca" and was struck how the song "As Time Goes By" is still so well known. It is my opinion that the movie's using it as such an integral part of the story is greatly responsible for this. What other fantastic pieces of music that might have faded from memory are still popular today because of their use in films?

 

[Undertow]

Anything Bugs Bunny (or his cohorts) whistled, hummed or sang, is more or less immortal now.

 

[dhermann1]

Colonel Bogie March, which the prisoners of war whistled in the opening scene of Bridge On the River Kwai.

 

[LizzieMaine]

..and which for anyone who listened to Red Sox Baseball broadcasts in the '70s will always be the theme song for Getty gasoline.

It's a pretty good chance that anyone who hears "Singin' In The Rain" will instantly think of Gene Kelly, even though the song was over twenty years old when he sang it.

 

[Retro_GI_Jane]

Just finished watching "Casablanca" and was struck how the song "As Time Goes By" is still so well known. It is my opinion that the movie's using it as such an integral part of the story is greatly responsible for this. What other fantastic pieces of music that might have faded from memory are still popular today because of their use in films?

It could also be because it was the theme song for the UK's series "As Time Goes By" with Judi Dench (which I think is a great series by the way).

 

[Captain Lex]

From what I know of Casablanca, "As Time Goes By" was and would have remained a pretty obscure song had it not been incorporated into the film. The screenwriter had quite a liking for it, but Max Steiner, the film's composer, was rather set on writing a new song, and would have done so they been able to reshoot the scenes with the song and Ingrid Bergman.

That said, I wasn't aware the song was particularly well-known. I would say it is not even as well-known as the film, which, although few things are, doesn't say a whole lot for its immortality.

As for immortal songs...Carl Orff's 'O Fortuna', which was immortalized by John Boorman in Excalibur. Deeply embedded, anonymously, in the popular culture is this song.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As Time Goes By had been a moderate hit in 1931, and was most closely identified with Rudy Vallee, who had promoted it heavily on his radio show that winter: the composer, Herman Hupfield, was a Vallee favorite. Vallee also recorded the song for Victor, and it was as successful as any record was going to be at that particular low ebb of the phonograph industry. Vallee was pretty much the only performer to feature the song much after 1931-32, however, and would occasionally revisit it on his radio programs thru the late thirties.

Casablanca brought it back from the dead, no doubt. Unfortunately for many artists who wanted to record it, that resurgence of popularity came during the AF of M recording ban of 1942-44, and it turned out the most popular recording of the song to emerge from this period was Victor's reissue of Vallee's original 1931 disc. His is still, to this day, the version most identified with the song by those who lived thru the Era.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

A more contemporary example would be Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, though Titanic star Kate Winslet can't stand the song.

"Like throwing up." That's how Kate Winslet feels when she hears Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," the once-inescapable theme to "Titanic."

"No, I shouldn't say that," Winslet added, thinking through her response before coming to this conclusion: "No, actually, I do feel like throwing up."

Since its release in 1997, the film has stuck with Winslet wherever she goes. It was the movie that helped her sky-rocket to the A-list, after all, and no one is likely to forget Dion's iconic song from "Titanic," set to be re-released in 3-D on April 4.

"I wish I could say, 'Oh listen, everybody! It's the Celine Dion song!' But I don't," Winslet admitted. "I just have to sit there, you know, kind of straight-faced with a massive internal eye roll."

Winslet went on to explain that every time she walks into a bar or a restaurant with a pianist, they never miss an opportunity to start playing the notes. "It's thrilling for people to surprise me with the Celine Dion song," she laughed.

But they not only play the tune for her, they also encourage the Oscar winner to sing it herself. "I did a talk show recently in Italy and they actually had a live pianist who started gently playing the theme song. I was not even gently, rather severely, urged to go and sing it as though I had in fact sung it myself in the first place. It was like, 'No! I'm not going to do that.' They're like, 'Oh no, come on it will be funny.' No, it won't be funny. At all. And I'm not going to."

Unfortunately for the actress, it's not just the theme song that haunts her. Whenever she boards a boat, she's the butt of jokes.

"Honestly, I actually now get onto boats and say, 'No jokes, OK? No jokes. Can we just move on from that? And if you have any jokes, let's just get them out of the way right now. Thank you. Anyone? Jokes, jokes? OK, moving on.' And then they still tell jokes," Winslet said. The most common joke is asking her to head to the front of the boat with them to reenact the iconic scene between hers and Leonardo DiCaprio's characters on the rail. To that she replies, "Oh, yeah! Oh, that one! Oh, don't worry, it's my party piece. Sure, come on up, bring your granny."

But Winslet is actually an amazing sport about the jokes. She understands how deeply the film touched its audience. And now that it will be on the big screen again, it can reach a whole new generation — including her children who will see it for the very first time.

"What's negative about it? Really, nothing at all," she said of the 3-D treatment. "It's very different and much more present. It's bigger — if you can believe that — but it is and you really do feel like you're in it."

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1682085/kate-winslet-titanic-theme-song.jhtml

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

As Time Goes By had been a moderate hit in 1931, and was most closely identified with Rudy Vallee, who had promoted it heavily on his radio show that winter: the composer, Herman Hupfield, was a Vallee favorite. Vallee also recorded the song for Victor, and it was as successful as any record was going to be at that particular low ebb of the phonograph industry. Vallee was pretty much the only performer to feature the song much after 1931-32, however, and would occasionally revisit it on his radio programs thru the late thirties.

Casablanca brought it back from the dead, no doubt. Unfortunately for many artists who wanted to record it, that resurgence of popularity came during the AF of M recording ban of 1942-44, and it turned out the most popular recording of the song to emerge from this period was Victor's reissue of Vallee's original 1931 disc. His is still, to this day, the version most identified with the song by those who lived thru the Era.

In my opinion the best version of As Time Goes By is the one by the The Columbians (Freddie Rich and his Orchestra) with vocal by Smith Ballew.

[video=youtube;y37eSRoUlU8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y37eSRoUlU8[/video]

 

[Rats Riley]

[video=youtube;GJSUT8Inl14]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJSUT8Inl14[/video]
White Christmas!

[video=youtube;6NTozy51AY0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NTozy51AY0[/video]
Minnie The Moocher!!

 

[MisterCairo]

I think its enduring qualities were the reason it was used for the (brilliant) show rather than the other way round!

It could also be because it was the theme song for the UK's series "As Time Goes By" with Judi Dench (which I think is a great series by the way).

 

[MisterCairo]

Baby It's Cold Outside - Two of my favourite film versions (there are others I know):

[video=youtube;fRGZULIkfwE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRGZULIkfwE[/video]


[video=youtube;bp3UoqOkFJo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp3UoqOkFJo[/video]

 

[Yeps]

[video=youtube;gDrzKBF6gDU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDrzKBF6gDU&feature=fvst[/video]


Although, for my generation it has been been tied irrevocably with Somewhere over the rainbow.
[video=youtube;C9b3_1CcXtY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9b3_1CcXtY[/video]

 

[vitanola]

..and which for anyone who listened to Red Sox Baseball broadcasts in the '70s will always be the theme song for Getty gasoline.

It's a pretty good chance that anyone who hears "Singin' In The Rain" will instantly think of Gene Kelly, even though the song was over twenty years old when he sang it.

Not Ukelele Ike?

"Why am I smiling, and why do I sing?
Why does December seem sunny as spring?
Why do I get up each morning and start
Happy and "Het-up" with joy in my heart?
Why is a new task a trifle to do"
'Cause I am living a life full of you!"