1999 Best Original Song - Phil Collins' Oscar-Winning Sleeping Pill

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WON: "You'll Be in My Heart," Tarzan

SHOULD'VE WON: "Blame Canada," South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

When it comes to Phil Collins, I suppose I have something of a love-hate relationship.

I adore his work with Genesis, for instance, and I've sided with him for the win in not one but two prior Best Original Song categories (in '84 for "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" and also '86 for "Separate Lives"). Collins was behind a lot of fine, sometimes even fantastic pop-rock throughout that decade, yet, by the '90s, he just wasn't all that fun anymore. His output, starting with the ...But, Seriously album, became aggravatingly heavy-handed and saccharine, which may have won the hearts of some Grammy (and later, Oscar) voters but otherwise put many of his past devotees to sleep.

In 1999, after three unsuccessful appearances in Best Original Song, Collins at last took home an Oscar, for Tarzan's "You'll Be in My Heart," a record that is emblematic of not only the artist's decline but also Disney's dwindling quality in original music for the screen. It's not a downright rotten song, certainly not on the level of say, one of Maureen McGovern's winners, but it's such a ball of cheese, decently orchestrated but not the least bit compelling.

What makes the Collins victory all the more frustrating is the competition this year was downright dynamite, a collection of familiar faces (Diane Warren and Randy Newman) and refreshingly idiosyncratic ones (Aimee Mann and Trey Parker). Of course, the Academy opted to side with the safest, most vanilla nominee of the line-up. Boot Collins for Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger" (from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) and you'd have one of the all-time great line-ups.

Toy Story 2's "When She Loved Me" is yet more proof Newman songs are better-off without the composer also serving as vocalist. It's a beautifully nuanced piece, performed by the always-enchanting Sarah McLachlan, so much more affecting than Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me," which was nominated for the series' first film. Music of the Heart isn't one of the greatest Meryl Streep vehicles, not by any stretch, but I can't help but like Warren's original song for the film, performed by - wait for it - NSYNC (!) and Gloria Estefan.

Magnolia wouldn't be Magnolia without Mann's incredible soundtrack. I'm actually most fond of "Wise Up" but "Save Me" is a fantastic track as well...such a delight to see the former 'Til Tuesday lead with an Oscar nom under her belt.

I can't help myself, though - I totally would have voted for Parker (alongside the always-delightful Marc Shaiman) here, even if "Blame Canada" probably isn't the best song from the South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut soundtrack (that honor would have to go to either "Mountain Town" or "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch"). Parker and Shaiman (and Matt Stone on other tracks) did such a fabulous job not only crafting side-splittingly funny songs but also paying loving homage to other great movie musicals.

The Oscar-winners ranked (thus far)...

  1. "Over the Rainbow," The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  2. "The Way You Look Tonight," Swing Time (1936)
  3. "High Hopes," A Hole in the Head (1959)
  4. "Streets of Philadelphia," Philadelphia (1993)
  5. "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
  6. "Mona Lisa," Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)
  7. "Baby, It's Cold Outside," Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  8. "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," Dirty Dancing (1987)
  9. "The Windmills of Your Mind," The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
  10. "The Way We Were," The Way We Were (1973)
  11. "Let the River Run," Working Girl (1988)
  12. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
  13. "Under the Sea," The Little Mermaid (1989)
  14. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, On My Darlin')," High Noon (1952)
  15. "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," The Lion King (1994)
  16. "Beauty and the Beast," Beauty and the Beast (1991)
  17. "I'm Easy," Nashville (1975)
  18. "You'll Never Know," Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)
  19. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," The Harvey Girls (1946)
  20. "Fame," Fame (1980)
  21. "Theme from Shaft," Shaft (1971)
  22. "Secret Love," Calamity Jane (1953)
  23. "White Christmas," Holiday Inn (1942)
  24. "Moon River," Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
  25. "Take My Breath Away," Top Gun (1986)
  26. "When You Wish Upon a Star," Pinocchio (1940)
  27. "Thanks for the Memory," The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
  28. "Lullaby of Broadway," Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
  29. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South (1947)
  30. "A Whole New World," Aladdin (1992)
  31. "My Heart Will Go On," Titanic (1997)
  32. "Flashdance...What a Feeling," Flashdance (1983)
  33. "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)," Arthur (1981)
  34. "Last Dance," Thank God It's Friday (1978)
  35. "Colors of the Wind," Pocahontas (1995)
  36. "You Must Love Me," Evita (1996)
  37. "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)," Dick Tracy (1990)
  38. "Days of Wine and Roses," Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
  39. "For All We Know," Lovers and Other Strangers (1970)
  40. "All the Way," The Joker Is Wild (1957)
  41. "It Might As Well Be Spring," State Fair (1945)
  42. "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Lady Be Good (1941)
  43. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  44. "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
  45. "It Goes Like It Goes," Norma Rae (1979)
  46. "Born Free," Born Free (1966)
  47. "Never on Sunday," Never on Sunday (1960)
  48. "I Just Called to Say I Love You," The Woman in Red (1984)
  49. "Up Where We Belong," An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
  50. "Three Coins in the Fountain," Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
  51. "Chim Chim Cher-ee," Mary Poppins (1964)
  52. "Call Me Irresponsible," Papa's Delicate Condition (1963)
  53. "Evergreen (Theme from A Star Is Born)," A Star Is Born (1976)
  54. "Swinging on a Star," Going My Way (1944)
  55. "You'll Be in My Heart," Tarzan (1999)
  56. "You Light Up My Life," You Light Up My Life (1977)
  57. "Gigi," Gigi (1958)
  58. "The Continental," The Gay Divorcee (1934)
  59. "Sweet Leilani," Waikiki Wedding (1937)
  60. "Buttons and Bows," The Paleface (1948)
  61. "Talk to the Animals," Doctor Dolittle (1967)
  62. "The Shadow of Your Smile," The Sandpiper (1965)
  63. "When You Believe," The Prince of Egypt (1998)
  64. "Say You, Say Me," White Nights (1985)
  65. "The Morning After," The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
  66. "We May Never Love Like This Again," The Towering Inferno (1974)