Never on Sunday-My Five Favorite Songs from the Academy Awards

Here are my five favorite winning songs from the vaults of the Academy Awards. There were many great ones to choose from, but these five had unknown value, in terms of subjective sentimentality and/or historical connections. I was growing up during the 1960s, if this tells you anything…

1. Windmills of Your Mind-1968-Music: Michel Legrand Lyrics: Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. The very best for me! From The Thomas Crown Affair. Had Steve McQueen. Complex melody with challenging images. I have the sheet music and have tried recording it a few times.

2. The Shadow of Your Smile-1965-Music: Johnny Mandel Lyrics: Paul Francis Webster. From the movie The Sandpiper with Richard Burton and Liz Taylor. Tony Bennett has a great version. I will view The Sandpiper soon. Need to hear the original version from the soundtrack.

3. Never On Sunday-1960- Composer: Manos Hadjidakis. From the movie Never on Sunday. Melina Mercouri plays a ‘hooker with a golden heart.’ Greek culture fest! This one was a staple of party-rock band The Potatoes (1987-1992), that I once played in. A crowd pleaser!

4. High Hopes-1959 Music: James Van Heusen Lyrics: Sammy Cahn. From the movie A Hole in the Head. Frank Sinatra changed the lyrics around and JFK used it as his 1960 campaign song. Chills come over me when I hear this one. Historical slideshows bleep o`er my eyes as John shakes hands with Americans all across our land!

5. Arthur`s Theme (Best that you can do) -1981-Music: Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Christopher Cross Lyrics: Peter Allen and Christopher Cross. From Arthur. A drunken rich cad, Dudley Moore with this great ditty superimposed. Christopher Cross made it big in Austin and was a favorite of ours…Gotta Run!