Notablog

Song of the Day: Glengarry Glenn Ross (“Blue Skies”) features the words and music of the legendary Irving Berlin. Part of the Great American Songbook, this song was a late addition to the 1926 Rodgers and Hart musical, “Betsy”, sung by Belle Baker. It was also one of the first…

Song of the Day: Flow (“Reflection”) [YouTube link], composed by Gints Zilbalodis and Rihards Zaļupe, is one of the cues from this thought-provoking Oscar-winning “Best Animated Feature“. I must confess that I watched this 2024 film—as I do all films featuring animal characters—with a bit of apprehensiveness. My first thought…

Song of the Day: Frankenstein (“The Tower”) [YouTube link], composed by Alexandre Desplat, is central to the creation scene in this 2025 film, directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and the Oscar-nominated Jacob Elordi as the Creature. Critics have been divided in their assessment…

Song of the Day: Advise & Consent (“Heart of Mine”), music by Jerry Fielding, lyrics by Ned Washington, is heard from a jukebox in a gay bar in this controversial star-packed 1962 film, directed by Otto Preminger. The film is based on Allen Drury’s 1959 political novel. The song is…

Song of the Day: Ben-Hur (“Reminiscences”), composed by Miklos Rozsa, is from my all-time favorite film score. This Best Picture won 11 Oscars, a record tied but never beaten. As I wrote in last year’s “Sacred Cinema” series, this 1959 epic might have won 12 Academy Awards, if Oscar-winning director…

Song of the Day: The Long Walk (“Main Theme”) [YouTube link] comes from the first score composed by Jeremiah Fraites of The Lumineers. Fraites also composed the underscore to “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” (2025). This 2025 dystopian thriller is based on a 1979 Stephen King novel (written by the…