Memorable movie songs passed over for Oscars

Many winners of the Oscar for Best Original Song aren’t very memorable. By contrast, there have been quite a few hit songs that have stood the test of time that were passed over by the Academy Awards.
A good number of those shunned songs are on the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 songs in American cinema.
What follows is a list of great movie songs that didn’t win Oscars:

• “Mrs. Robinson” by Simon & Garfunkel from “The Graduate” (1967) shamefully was not nominated for an Academy Award. The winning song that year was “Talk to the Animals” from “Doctor Dolittle.”
• “The Bare Necessities” from “The Jungle Book” (1967) was nominated, but also lost to “Talk to the Animals.” And the terrific “I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)” from “The Jungle Book” wasn’t even nominated.
• “Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney and Wings from the 1973 James Bond movie lost the Oscar that year to “The Way We Were” from the movie of the same name.
• “Nobody Does It Better,” performed by Carly Simon for the 1977 James Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me,” lost to the lame tune “You Light Up My Life” from the movie of the same name.
• “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees from “Saturday Night Fever” (1977) wasn’t even nominated in the year “You Light Up My Life” won. Neither was a bunch of Bee Gees hits from the soundtrack including “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Night Fever” and “More Than a Woman.”
• “Rainbow Connection” from “The Muppet Movie” (1979) was nominated, but lost the Oscar to the unmemorable “It Goes Like It Goes” from “Norma Rae.”
• “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” by Phil Collins from the 1984 movie “Against All Odds,” was nominated but lost out to the saccharine Steve Wonder tune “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from “The Woman in Red.”
• “I Have Nothing,” performed by Whitney Houston for the soundtrack to “The Bodyguard” (1992), was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to “A Whole New World” from “Aladdin.” “Run to You,” another classic Whitney Houston song from “The Bodyguard,” also was nominated that year.
• “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” performed by Aerosmith for “Armageddon” (1998), was nominated but lost to the forgettable “When You Believe” from “The Prince of Egypt.”
• “The Great Beyond” by REM for the 1999 movie “Man on the Moon” was not even nominated for an Oscar.

Photos: Promotional art for “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins (top) and “The Great Beyond” by REM.