Best Music, 1948

Awards presented March 24, 1949

And the nominees were ... 
(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) 

• Brian Easdale, The Red Shoes  
• Hugo Friedhofer, Joan of Arc 
• Alfred Newman, The Snake Pit 
• Max Steiner, Johnny Belinda 
• William Walton, Hamlet 

(Scoring of a Musical Picture) 

• Johnny Green, Roger Edens, Easter Parade 
• Lennie Hayton, The Pirate 
• Ray Heindorf, Romance on the High Seas  
• Alfred Newman, When My Baby Smiles at Me 
• Victor Young, The Emperor Waltz 

(Song) 

• "Buttons and Bows," from The Paleface. Music and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
• "For Every Man There's a Woman," from Casbah. Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Leo Robin 
• "It's Magic," from Romance on the High Seas. Music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn 
• "This Is the Moment," from That Lady in Ermine. Music by Frederick Hollander, lyrics by Leo Robin 
• "The Woody Woodpecker Song," from Wet Blanket Policy. Music and lyrics by Ramey Idriss and George Tibbles 

... when they should have been ... 

(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) 

• Brian Easdale, The Red Shoes  
• Hugo Friedhofer, Joan of Arc 
• Max Steiner, Johnny Belinda 
• Dimitri Tiomkin, Red River 
• William Walton, Hamlet 

(Song) 

• "Buttons and Bows," from The Paleface. Music and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
• "For Every Man There's a Woman," from Casbah. Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Leo Robin 
• "It's a Most Unusual Day," from A Date With Judy. Music and lyrics by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson 
• "It's Magic," from Romance on the High Seas. Music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn 
• "Steppin' Out With My Baby," from Easter Parade. Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)

Brian Easdale, The Red Shoes.  

Brian Easdale

This was Easdale's second film score for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The previous year he had composed the score for Black Narcissus. On The Red Shoes, he was a replacement for Allan Gray, who had worked on many of Powell and Pressburger's films, but was unable to deliver a ballet score that satisfied them. Easdale had studied at the Royal College of Music, and began his film composition career on scores for propaganda and training films while serving in World War II. He scored several more films for Powell and Pressburger, as well as for Powell's notorious 1960 horror movie Peeping Tom, which was widely censored. He also composed many concert works. Although this was his only Oscar nomination, he was the first British composer to receive an Academy Award for film scoring.    

(Scoring of a Musical Picture) 

Johnny Green, Roger Edens, Easter Parade. 

Fred Astaire and Ann Miller play a successful vaudeville dance team, but when Miller decides to go solo in a new show, Astaire bets that he can take the next chorus girl he sees and turn her into Miller's replacement. That dancer happens to be Judy Garland. After some initial friction, they become a successful team, provoking Miller's jealous attempt to win him back. The plot is only a mild annoyance in this lovely trifle of a musical, which not only provides the only film teaming of Astaire and Garland but also showcases sixteen songs by Irving Berlin. (The seven songs written especially for the film were eligible for the Oscar, but none of them were nominated -- in a slate that included "The Woody Woodpecker Song.") Astaire had announced his retirement, but was persuaded out of it by producer Arthur Freed after Gene Kelly, originally set to star, broke his ankle in a volleyball game. Vincente Minnelli, then married to Garland, was going to direct, but her psychiatrist advised against their working together. Charles Walters replaced him. This was the first of five Oscars for Green, and the first of three for Edens. 

(Song) 

"Buttons and Bows," from The Paleface. Music and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. 

Ray Evans, Jane Russell and Jay Livingston with their Paleface Oscars

Calamity Jane (Jane Russell), an undercover agent trying to find out who's selling firearms to the Indians, marries "Painless" Potter, a tenderfoot dentist (Bob Hope), in order to conceal her identity. She spends much of the movie helping him look like a sharpshooting hero and avoiding consummating the marriage. Silly but endearing, though it drags a bit toward the end. The 1952 sequel, Son of Paleface, is better. Directed by Norman Z. McLeod. Hope sings Livingston and Evans's agreeable hit song, which won them the first of their three Oscars. Livingston and Evans met when they were in business school at Wharton, and began writing songs for the band they played in. They were nominated four more times, and also had hits with the song "To Each His Own" and the Christmas standard "Silver Bells," not to mention the theme songs for the TV shows "Bonanza" and "Mr. Ed."  

Best Music, 1943

Awards presented March 2, 1944

The nominees were ... 

(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)

• Phil Boutelje, Hi Diddle Diddle  
• Gerard Carbonara, The Kansan  
• Aaron Copland, The North Star  
• Hanns Eisler, Hangmen Also Die 
• Leigh Harline, Johnny Come Lately 
• Arthur Lange, Lady of Burlesque   
• Alfred Newman, The Song of Bernadette  
• Edward H. Plumb, Paul J. Smith, Oliver G. Wallace, Victory Through Air Power  
• Walter Scharf, In Old Oklahoma 
• Frank Skinner, Hans Salter, The Amazing Mrs. Holliday   
• Max Steiner, Casablanca   
• Morris Stoloff, Louis Gruenberg, Commandos Strike at Dawn    
• Herbert Stothart, Madame Curie  
• Dimitri Tiomkin, The Moon and Sixpence  
• Roy Webb, C. Bakaleinikoff, The Fallen Sparrow    
• Victor Young, For Whom the Bell Tolls                             

(Scoring of a Musical Picture) 

• Robert Emmett Dolan, Star Spangled Rhythm 
• Leigh Harline, The Sky's the Limit  
• Ray Heindorf, This Is the Army  
• Alfred Newman, Coney Island     
• Frederic E. Rich, Stage Door Canteen  
• Walter Scharf, Hit Parade of 1943     
• Morris Stoloff, Something to Shout About  
• Herbert Stothart, Thousands Cheer  
• Edward Ward, Phantom of the Opera     
• Charles Wolcott, Edward H. Plumb, Paul J. Smith, Saludos Amigos                     

(Song) 

• "A Change of Heart," from Hit Parade of 1943. Music by Jule Styne; Lyrics by Harold Adamson 
• "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe," from Cabin in the Sky. Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg 
• "My Shining Hour," from The Sky's the Limit. Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer  
• "Saludos Amigos," from Saludos Amigos. Music by Charles Wolcott; Lyrics by Ned Washington 
• "Say a Pray'r for the Boys Over There," from Hers to Hold. Music by Jimmy McHugh; Lyrics by Herb Magidson 
• "That Old Black Magic," from Star Spangled Rhythm. Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer 
• "They're Either Too Young or Too Old," from Thank Your Lucky Stars. Music by Arthur Schwartz; Lyrics by Frank Loesser  
• "We Mustn't Say Goodbye," from Stage Door Canteen. Music by James Monaco; Lyrics by Al Dubin 
• "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," from Something to Shout About. Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter  
• "You'll Never Know," from Hello, Frisco, Hello. Music by Harry Warren; Lyrics by Mack Gordon 

... when they should have been ... 

(Scoring of a Musical Picture) 

• George Bassman, Roger Edens, Hall Johnson, Georgie Stoll, Cabin in the Sky 
• Robert Emmett Dolan, Star Spangled Rhythm 
• Leigh Harline, The Sky's the Limit  
• Ray Heindorf, This Is the Army  
• Charles Henderson, Alfred Newman, Fletcher Henderson, The Gang's All Here 
• Frederic E. Rich, Stage Door Canteen  
• Walter Scharf, Hit Parade of 1943     
• Morris Stoloff, Something to Shout About  
• Edward Ward, Phantom of the Opera     
• Charles Wolcott, Edward H. Plumb, Paul J. Smith, Saludos Amigos   

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) 

Alfred Newman, The Song of Bernadette. 

Newman's score is reserved and dignified, without relying on "heavenly choir" clichés. While Max Steiner's Casablanca score is more stirring, it leans heavily on other musical sources, such as the "Marseillaise" and Herman Hupfeld's "As Time Goes By." If what you're looking for is originality, Newman probably deserved the award, the third of his record-setting nine Oscars. 

(Scoring of a Musical Picture) 

Ray Heindorf, This Is the Army.

Originally a hit Broadway revue, entirely performed by soldiers, that also toured military bases, the film version supplies a frame story about Jerry Jones (George Murphy), who writes a World War I revue called Yip, Yip, Yaphank, which was an actual show written, like This Is the Army, by Irving Berlin. Comes the next war, and it's the turn of his son, Johnny (Ronald Reagan), to write his own show. The spectacle of two future California Republican politicians playing father and son is probably enough to get some people's attention, but there's also Berlin himself singing "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" and Kate Smith doing (what else?) "God Bless America." This was the second of Heindorf's three scoring awards.   

(Song) 

"You'll Never Know," from Hello, Frisco, Hello. Music by Harry Warren; Lyrics by Mack Gordon. 

Social-climbing Barbary Coast saloon keeper John Payne and rising star singer Alice Faye fall in love in this stale musical trifle. The Oscar-winning song, performed by Faye in her most misty-eyed fashion, was a big hit because it expressed the sentiments of couples separated by the war. This was the second of Warren's three Oscars, but the only win out of nine nominations for Gordon. 

... when it should have gone to ... 

(Scoring of a Musical Picture) 

George Bassman, Roger Edens, Hall Johnson, Georgie Stoll, Cabin in the Sky. 

We should know enough by now not to complain about the Academy's choices, especially when it comes to music, but how the hell it passed over this extraordinary musical in the nominations remains a mystery equal to the ones it later raised, when it failed to nominate any of the songs from A Hard Day's Night and Saturday Night Fever. At least it did take note of the great Arlen-Harburg song "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe." The original Broadway version had songs by Vernon Duke and John Latouche, including the title song as well as "Taking a Chance on Love" and "Honey in the Honeycomb," though they were ineligible for the Oscars. But the film also had music performed by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, and John Bubbles. And the film had to be scored by someone. Looking at the IMDb credits, I've singled out Bassman, the orchestrator; Edens, the musical adapter; Johnson, the choral arranger; and Stoll, the musical director, as the likely overlooked nominees. 

(Song) 

"That Old Black Magic," from Star Spangled Rhythm. Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer.

Part commercial for Paramount, part flag-waving "salute to the boys in blue," this all-star revue on a story about a studio gatekeeper (Victor Mature) pretending to be head of Paramount. Switchboard operator Betty Hutton tries to keep Moore's son, a sailor played by Eddie Bracken, from learning the truth. Meanwhile, the studio musters its resources to put on a show for the Navy. Those resources include Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and dozens of other stars, as well as directors Cecil B. DeMille and Preston Sturges, all playing themselves. With that much talent it's a wonder that they chose the bland Johnny Johnston to sing Arlen and Mercer's hit song. This was the year that Arlen had three Oscar nominees for best song, two of them with lyrics by Mercer. Arlen, though he racked up nine nominations, won only once, for "Over the Rainbow." Mercer, on the other hand, won four Oscars and was nominated nineteen times.