Posted by Kirk in Academy Awards, Movies, Soundtrack | 1 comment
Huey Lewis and ‘Pineapple Express’ Get Oscar Snub
Is it me, or are the Academy Awards releasing their lists of eligible nominations a little more than usual this year. Â Today saw the release of the 49 songs eligible for Best Original Song. Â Before we get into the eligible songs or the core of this article, let’s look at the qualifications for Best Original Song.
A maximum of two songs may be nominated from any film. If more than two songs from a film are in contention, the two songs with the most votes will be the nominees.
To be eligible, a song must consist of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the film. A clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition of both lyric and melody must be used in the body of the film or as the first music cue in the end credits.
Okay, got that? Â Now comes the disappointing news. Â ”Pineapple Express”, the Huey Lewis, original song that plays over the end credits of the film is not on the list. Â What gives? Â It falls into the above qualifications? Â Was it that bad that the Oscars couldn’t bear to even have it mentioned for eligibility? Â Is it just an oversight?
I’m not going to list all the eligible songs here, but you can check out the list by following this link.
What do you think? Â Was it just an oversight on the Academy’s part? Â Did you like the Huey Lewis song? Â Which songs do you think should get the five, open nomination slots? Â Let us know by commenting below!
Source: Oscars.com
I don’t know the reason for the song’s absence. I do know that the list of eligible songs you refer to does not pass judgment on any songs. Those are simply the songs that are eligible – full stop.
Why the title song from PE is absent could be related to a technicality. The Academy reviews very carefully the information related to their potential nominees. If they find that the music for the song was written previously and not specifically for the film then it would be declared ineligible. The lyrics were obviously written for the film, but it’s possible Huey Lewis and the News had the melody hanging around and set movie-related lyrics to it. That’s one of many possible technicalities.
Something like that seems to occur almost every year in either the song or the original score categories. “Come What May” from Moulin Rouge was ineligible because it was originally written (but not used) for Romeo and Juliet.