Music Blogs

Slumdog Millionaire this week joins a very exclusive club. It becomes only the 16th movie to both win an Academy Award for Best Picture and generate a top 10 soundtrack album. The Oscar, especially the coveted prize for Best Picture, is one of the most universally recognized marks of success in entertainment. So is the Billboard 200 album chart, especially the much-reprinted top 10. It's not easy to come out on top in either of these worlds. To triumph in both of them is so hard that it has happened just 16 times in the 64 years since Billboard introduced its album chart.

The list of films that have won the Oscar for Best Picture and spawned a top 10 soundtrack includes both "little movies" such as Rocky and Chariots Of Fire and big, screen-filling epics such as Titanic and Lawrence Of Arabia. It includes six musicals (most recently, Chicago) and one movie filled with iconic oldies (Forrest Gump). Four of the soundtracks (Titanic, Chariots Of Fire, Rocky and Going My Way) spun off #1 hits.

The list has a decidedly international flavor. A.R. Rahman, who won two Oscars for his work on Slumdog Millionaire, was born in India. Other foreign-born composers represented on the list include Vangelis, from Greece; Maurice Jarre, from France; Miklos Rozsa, from Hungary; and Frederick Loewe, from Germany by way of Austria. Music, it seems, really is the international language.

Here's a complete list of Oscar-winning Best Pictures that spawned top 10 soundtracks, in reverse chronological order.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Composer A.R. Rahman was responsible for two of the film's eight Oscars--Best Original Score and Best Original Song for "Jai Ho," which he co-wrote with lyricist Gulzar. Rahman also co-wrote a second nominated song, "O Saya." The soundtrack vaults from #22 to #4 on this week's chart. It's the first soundtrack to an Oscar-winning Best Picture to crack the top 10 only after the Oscar telecast since Rocky 32 years ago.

Chicago (2002). This John Kander/Fred Ebb musical took 27 years to make the move from stage to screen. The Broadway show, starring Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera, opened in June 1975. It was overshadowed (and aced out at the Tony Awards) by A Chorus Line, which opened four months later. But there was a reversal of fortune when it came to the movie versions of these shows. A Chorus Line, in 1985, bombed, while Chicago, starring Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere and Catherine Zeta-Jones, was a big hit and won six Oscars. The soundtrack reached #2.

Titanic (1997). This soundtrack logged 16 consecutive weeks at #1, longer than any other mostly instrumental soundtrack in history. A song from the album, Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme From Titanic)," topped the Hot 100 for two weeks. The film won 11 Oscars, including two for composer James Horner--Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song (which he shared with lyricist Will Jennings).

Forrest Gump (1994). This double CD consisted of various oldies, including such era-defining hits as Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog," Aretha Franklin's "Respect" and Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound)." The Tom Hanks film won six Oscars. The soundtrack logged five weeks at #2. It was blocked from the top spot by another soundtrack, The Lion King.

Chariots Of Fire (1981). This was the only soundtrack from an Oscar-winning Best Picture of the 1980s to reach the top 10. The album logged four weeks at #1. The instrumental theme from the album, "Chariots Of Fire-Titles," topped the Hot 100.

The film won four Oscars, including one to Vangelis for Best Original Score.

Rocky (1976). Bill Conti's instrumental score logged six weeks at #4. One of the songs, "Gonna Fly Now," hit #1 and received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. The movie, which starred Sylvester Stallone, won three Oscars.

The Sting (1973). Marvin Hamlisch won an Oscar for adapting the music of ragtime great Scott Joplin (who had died in 1917 at the age of 48). One of the songs, "The Entertainer," even became an unlikely #3 hit, 72 years after Joplin composed it. The album logged five weeks at #1. The Paul Newman/Robert Redford movie won seven Oscars.

The Sound Of Music (1965). This was the last musical written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who had collaborated on an unmatched string of hits starting with Oklahoma! in 1943. The Sound Of Music debuted on Broadway in November 1959, with Mary Martin in the lead. Hammerstein died of stomach cancer nine months later. Julie Andrews starred in the film, which won five Oscars, including one to director Robert Wise. The soundtrack logged 109 weeks in the top 10, more than any other album since 1963. It spent two weeks at #1.

My Fair Lady (1964). The stage version of this musical, starring Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and Stanley Holloway, opened on Broadway in March 1956. The two men reprised their stage roles in the 1964 film, but Andrews, famously, was passed over in favor of Audrey Hepburn. The film won eight Oscars, including one to Andre Previn for adapting the incomparable Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe score. The soundtrack logged three weeks at #4.

Lawrence Of Arabia (1962). This epic won seven Oscars, including one to Maurice Jarre for composing the score. The London Philharmonic Orchestra played his music. The album spent two weeks at #2.

West Side Story (1961). Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim teamed to write this musical, which opened on Broadway in September 1957. The stage show lost the Tony Award for Best Musical to The Music Man, but the film version won 10 Oscars, more than any other musical in history. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins shared the award for Best Director. The soundtrack logged 54 weeks at #1, longer than any other album since the chart became a weekly feature in March 1956.

Ben-Hur (1959). This epic was the first film to win 11 Oscars, a total since equaled by only two other movies, Titanic and The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King. One went to Miklos Rozsa for composing the score. Carlo Savina conducted the soundtrack, which reached #6.

Gigi (1958). Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe followed their 1956 Broadway smash My Fair Lady by writing this made-for-the-screen musical. The movie starred Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan and Eva Gabor. The movie won Oscars in all nine categories in which it was nominated. Vincente Minnelli, who had been nominated for directing An American In Paris, won his only Oscar for directing this film. The title song, subtitled "Gaston's Soliloquy," won an Oscar as Best Song. The soundtrack logged 10 weeks at #1.

Around The World In 80 Days (1956). Victor Young, who won an Oscar for scoring this all-star film, died in November 1956, less than a month after the film's New York premiere. His lilting "Around The World (Main Theme)" became a posthumous top 15 hit. The soundtrack logged 10 weeks at #1. The film won five Oscars. Its large cast included David Niven, Shirley MacLaine and Noel Coward.

An American In Paris (1951). Gene Kelly starred in this made-for-the-screen musical and sang three songs on the soundtrack, including "Love Is Here To Stay" and "I Got Rhythm." All of the songs were written by the peerless brother team, George and Ira Gershwin. George Gershwin had died of a brain tumor in 1937, at the age of 38. The movie won six Oscars. The album logged 16 weeks at #1.

Going My Way (1944). Bing Crosby won his only Oscar for playing Father O'Malley in this film, which won a total of seven Oscars. The soundtrack logged six weeks at #1. It included four Crosby hits, including "Swinging On A Star" and a remake of the 1914 hit "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Rai (That's An Irish Lullaby)." "Swinging On A Star" logged nine weeks at #1 and won an Oscar as Best Song.

Four more soundtracks to Oscar-winning Best Pictures made the top 30 but stopped short of the top 10. The Apartment (1960), featuring an instrumental score by Adolph Deutsch, hit #18; Oliver! (1968), the screen adaptation of the Lionel Bart stage musical, hit #20; Midnight Cowboy (1969), featuring John Barry's instrumental score and such vocal tracks as Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'," hit #19; and The Godfather (1972), featuring Nino Rota's instrumental score, hit #21.