Best Original Song – 1972

Official Nominations: The Morning After (The Poseidon Adventure). Ben (Ben). Come Follow, Follow Me (The Little Ark). Marmalade, Molasses, And Honey (The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean). Strange Are The Ways Of Love (The Stepmother)

The Morning After picked up the official win, a fine ballad (better than the more famous McGovern effort which would follow the film’s release) which is both sad and hopeful. Armand’s vocals suit the softer, smoother approach, and though it is fairly plain it’s still effective. Ben, chilling and lonesome when viewed within the confines of the film, but beautiful and brilliant outside, is one of Jackson’s finest early ballads with a flawless vocal performance and sweeping Motown backing. I could only find badly recorded versions of Come Follow, Follow Me, a gentle folk style song with soothing melodies but some dodgy accents. Marmalade, Molasses, And Honey is an overly twee song which doesn’t really suit Milius and Huston’s film and isn’t strong enough to stand on its own. Strange Are The Ways Of Love is another downer song making this quite a downbeat year for nominations. Again it’s hard to get a good copy of this one, but it’s a deep-vocal song which features both a fast version and a slower, acoustic guitar led version.

My Winner: Ben

My Nominations: Ben. Rejoice In The Sun (Silent Running). Speak Softly, Love (The Godfather). You’re The Only Girl (Fritz The Cat). Lila’s Theme (Snoopy, Come Home). Free Four (La Vallee).

Only Ben makes it to my list, and you already know it’ll be the winner. Still, it goes up against some decent tunes, none of which have had the same lasting impact. Rejoice In The Sun sees Joan Baez serenade Bruce Dern as he grows flowers in space. It’s the sort of song you can imagine some bin lid like Adele ruining – it’s lovely, idyllic, sub-hippy stuff but not for anyone who isn’t a fan of Joan’s vocals. Speak Softly, Love is The Godfather’s exquisitely dramatic lead song, basically taking one of the main themes and adding lyrics and vocals. By now you should all know how I feel about jazz, or even brass. And yet, there’s something inherently funny and woozy about You’re The Only Girl For Me from Fritz The Cat. It’s a very simple song, sleepy, slow, and backed by dazed brass and tippy tappy piano. Another song for animation is Lila’s Theme from Snoopy Come Home – again it has a rainy day bittersweet tone and will bring back memories of a poor sick girl for anyone who has seen the movie. Finally is Pink Floyd’s Free Four from back when they were regularly working on movies. It’s a simple, straight song from the band with typically great lyrics and a hand-clapping rhythm with booming distortion and good old Gilmour face-melter.

My Winner: Ben

Let us know in the comments which song you feel deserves the win!