Music Video Friday: Survivor – Eye Of The Tiger (1982 Oscar Nominee)

Today’s Oscar nominated song is Survivor’s Eye Of The Tiger from the film Rocky III.

I’ve ended up only doing three of these Oscar Song posts (I figured I better review Deadpool instead one Friday so I scrapped Eminem’s Lose Yourself). I’ve missed out on a lot of great nominees & winners. Oh well – I’ll post more at Oscars-time next year!

Last week I talked about Aimee Mann’s Save Me and the one I kicked things off with was Irene Cara’s Flashdance…What A Feeling. Let’s face it – Eye Of The Tiger is the equivalent of Flashdance… What A Feeling for boys so it made sense to talk about this one now. Plus, of course, Sylvester Stallone is up for an Oscar this Sunday for his role in Creed. No, I’ve not seen Creed since I’ve never even seen any of the Rocky films. Yeah, yeah – I know I should. Hey – at least I’ve seen Flashdance so I’ve seen the girl version of Rocky anyway! 😉 Without all the unnecessary hitting.

Eye Of The Tiger lost out to Up Where We Belong from An Officer And A Gentleman. That’s fair enough – that’s a good song and worthy winner. But it’s not as well-known and iconic today. Eye Of The Tiger may be a piece of 80’s cheese but who doesn’t know it and who doesn’t immediately think of Rocky when they hear it (even when they’ve not even seen the movies)?? I miss cheesy, uplifting 80’s songs like these. I can’t say this is an all-time favorite song but it usually puts a smile on my face and makes me want to punch something (in a happy way!).

Does he seriously train by punching meat? Lol! And people make fun of similar movies like Flashdance?! Hopefully the meat thing is in one of the non-Best-Picture-Winner sequels. And I really hope Eye Of The Tiger was used in one of those long, silly montages that only ever worked in 80’s films. God I love those! Push it to the limit!

Anyway, I read on Wikipedia that Stallone asked Survivor to do a song for the movie as he originally wanted Queen’s Another One Bites The Dust to be the theme song but they didn’t give their permission. That’s good – I like that song and think it would’ve been ruined for me being associated with a Rocky movie. Besides, Eye Of The Tiger ended up being the perfect fit.

Onto the video: Wow – no expense was spared! Are those garbage bags behind the band?? I like how they have fans blowing on them to make a cool effect. Ha! A+ for effort on what I assume was a very low budget. GOD I love the Eighties…. 🙂

Music Video Friday: Aimee Mann – Save Me (1999 Oscar Nominee)

Today’s Oscar nominated song is Aimee Mann’s Save Me from the film Magnolia.

Ah, Magnolia… That was a weird one, wasn’t it? I watched it at the time and I liked it a lot (especially the ending) but I’ve not watched it since and it’s one where I wonder if I’d just find it pretentious now in my bitter old age. However, I still love the Magnolia soundtrack! Okay, the use of Supertramp helped a lot but I also really liked the Aimee Mann songs even though I’m very rarely a fan of the singer/songwriter thing.

I suppose I liked Mann’s voice thanks to ‘Til Tuesday’s Voices Carry (ha – I loved that video! her boyfriend was such an asshole). But, from Magnolia, I preferred Wise Up – I think it’s weird that Save Me was nominated instead of that one considering that was the one used for the movie’s big sing-along.

Phil Collins actually won the Oscar in 1999 for You’ll Be in My Heart from Tarzan. Meh – it’s okay for your typical, lame 1990’s Phil Collins song but it didn’t deserve the win. Besides Save Me, the other nominees were Music Of My Heart, Blame Canada & When She Loved Me. Okay, I admit that I don’t know Music Of My Heart but I’d choose all the others over the Collins song. And, let’s be honest, the one that most deserved to win was When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2! Come on – you know you’re all feeling tearful now just thinking about Jesse being abandoned. 😦

But Save Me deserved its nomination & I’m glad a soundtrack I really like got some recognition. Like the movie, the video was also directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. During the filming of the movie, he’d have the actors stay in place while he filmed Mann performing next to them. Yeah, I read that at Wikipedia – I thought they’d inserted her into the scenes later with special effects magic. I also love this little tidbit at Wikipedia:

“By way of introduction to a live performance, Mann has referred to Save Me as “the song that lost an Oscar to Phil Collins and his cartoon monkey love song.” Furthermore, Mann has occasionally dedicated her song to Collins in several different venues, albeit in jest.”

Haha! I’ll now forever think of Phil Collins as the “cartoon monkey love song guy”. Anyway, here’s Aimee Mann’s video for Save Me: 🙂

Music Video Friday: Irene Cara – Flashdance… What A Feeling (1983 Oscar Winner)

As the Oscars are coming up at the end of this month, I thought it might be fun to post some of the Best Original Song Oscar winners (and nominees) for the next four Fridays.

This song is (obviously!) from the 1983 film Flashdance. I was too young for the movie when it came out so saw it when I was probably about 20. It’s not exactly the best movie ever but it’s fun enough and the “splash” scene above is very iconic. And, screw it – I like the dance at the end. I can be girly sometimes!

I just remember that the film was seen as a little “naughty” at the time and, as a reward, my school’s wrestling coach let the boys pick a movie to watch after they won a wrestling (um, tournament? match? game? meet??) when we were about 13/14 and they chose Flashdance. Horny bastards. I don’t want to know what they all did while thinking about Jennifer Beals that night.

As for the song, though, it’s a classic and far better than the movie. It’s one of those occasions where the song made the film and the movie definitely wouldn’t be as well known without it. It was written by Giorgio Moroder (the music) with lyrics by Keith Forsey & Irene Cara. Well of course it’s awesome – Giorgio Moroder was involved! Even Daft Punk think he’s cool enough to devote a whole song to him. (Moroder also won an Oscar for Berlin’s Take My Breath Away from Top Gun – maybe I’ll post that one next week!).

Anyway, here’s a video of the lovely Irene Cara (of Fame fame. HA!) and Keith Forsey accepting the Oscar from Jennifer Beals and a very young Matthew Broderick. By the way – the Fame theme song, sung by Cara, also won the Best Original Song Oscar. Six degrees of Oscars separation!

And then, of course, is the video for Flashdance… What A Feeling. Take your passion! And make it happen! This song is totally stuck in my head now!!! But that’s okay. 🙂