American Film Institute’s
100 Years . . . 100 Songs
The American Film Institute (AFI) celebrated the centennial of cinema by airing a number of television specials, each honoring a different aspect of excellence in American film. On June 22, 2004 AFI broadcast a program entitled “100 Years . . . 100 Songs—America’s Greatest Movie Songs.”
To determine the winners, AFI invited more than 1,500 leaders from across the American film community—screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, editors, executives, film historians and critics, among them—to choose from a list of nominated films compiled by AFI. The selected films (and their ranking) are listed below.
The
symbol appears next to those films which also received an Academy Award nomination (although this was not a requirement for inclusion on the list). Click on the name of one of those films to display more information about it. You can also click on the IMDb link to to open a new browser window or tabshowing information about the film from the Internet Movie Database. Or, click on a title in the column on the right to display the winners from another AFI program.
For more information, you can follow this link to the American Film Institute’s website.
| An American in Paris (1951) IMDb |
| “I Got Rhythm” (32) | |
| Annie Hall (1977) IMDb |
| “Seems Like Old Times” (90) | |
| Arthur (1981) IMDb |
| “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (79) | |
| The Band Wagon (1953) IMDb |
| “That’s Entertainment” (45) | |
| Beaches (1988) IMDb |
| “Wind Beneath My Wings” (44) | |
| Beauty and the Beast (1991) IMDb |
| “Beauty and the Beast” (62) | |
| The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) IMDb |
| “Thanks for the Memory” (63) | |
| The Big Chill (1983) IMDb |
| “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” (94) | |
| Blackboard Jungle (1955) IMDb |
| “Rock Around the Clock” (50) | |
| The Bodyguard (1992) IMDb |
| “I Will Always Love You” (65) | |
| Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) IMDb |
| “Moon River” (4) | |
 | Bright Eyes (1934) IMDb |
| “On the Good Ship Lollipop” (69) | |
| Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) IMDb |
| “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (23) | |
| Cabaret (1972) IMDb |
| “Cabaret” (18) | |
| Casablanca (1943) IMDb |
| “As Time Goes By” (2) | |
| Chicago (2002) IMDb |
| “All That Jazz” (98) | |
| Cover Girl (1944) IMDb |
| “Long Ago and Far Away” (92) | |
| Days of Wine and Roses (1962) IMDb |
| “Days of Wine and Roses” (39) | |
| Dirty Dancing (1987) IMDb |
| “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” (86) | |
| Do the Right Thing (1989) IMDb |
| “Fight the Power” (40) | |
| Easy Rider (1969) IMDb |
| “Born to Be Wild” (29) | |
| 8 Mile (2002) IMDb |
| “Lose Yourself” (93) | |
| Fame (1980) IMDb |
| “Fame” (51) | |
| Flashdance (1983) IMDb |
| “Flashdance . . . What a Feeling” (55) | |
| Footloose (1984) IMDb |
| “Footloose” (96) | |
| 42nd Street (1933) IMDb |
| “42nd Street” (97) | |
| Funny Girl (1968) IMDb |
| “People” (13) | |
| “Don’t Rain on My Parade” (46) | |
| Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) IMDb |
| “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” (12) | |
| Ghost (1990) IMDb |
| “Unchained Melody” (27) | |
| Gigi (1958) IMDb |
| “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” (56) | |
| Gilda (1946) IMDb |
| “Put the Blame on Mame” (84) | |
| Going My Way (1944) IMDb |
| “Swinging on a Star” (37) | |
| Goldfinger (1964) IMDb |
| “Goldfinger” (53) | |
| The Graduate (1967) IMDb |
| “Mrs. Robinson” (6) | |
| Grease (1978) IMDb |
| “Summer Nights” (70) | |
| Guys and Dolls (1955) IMDb |
| “Luck Be a Lady” (42) | |
| Hair (1979) IMDb |
| “Aquarius” (33) | |
| High Noon (1952) IMDb |
| “High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’)” (25) | |
| Holiday Inn (1942) IMDb |
| “White Christmas” (5) | |
| Jailhouse Rock (1957) IMDb |
| “Jailhouse Rock” (21) | |
| The King and I (1956) IMDb |
| “Shall We Dance” (54) | |
| The Lion King (1994) IMDb |
| “Hakuna Matata” (99) | |
| Love Me Tonight (1932) IMDb |
| “Isn’t It Romantic?” (73) | |
| The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) IMDb |
| “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)” (48) | |
| Mary Poppins (1964) IMDb |
| “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (36) | |
| M*A*S*H (1970) IMDb |
| “Suicide Is Painless” (66) | |
| Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) IMDb |
| “The Trolly Song” (26) | |
| “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (76) | |
| Midnight Cowboy (1969) IMDb |
| “Everybody’s Talkin’” (22) | |
| Moulin Rouge! (2001) IMDb |
| “Come What May” (85) | |
| The Muppet Movie (1979) IMDb |
| “Rainbow Connection” (74) | |
| My Fair Lady (1964) IMDb |
| “I Could Have Danced All Night” (17) | |
| Nashville (1975) IMDb |
| “I’m Easy” (81) | |
| New York, New York (1977) IMDb |
| “Theme from ‘New York, New York’” (31) | |
| 9 to 5 (1980) IMDb |
| “9 to 5” (78) | |
| An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) IMDb |
| “Up Where We Belong” (75) | |
| On the Town (1949) IMDb |
| “New York, New York” (41) | |
| The Paleface (1948) IMDb |
| “Buttons and Bows” (87) | |
| Philadelphia (1993) IMDb |
| “Streets of Philadelphia” (68) | |
| Pinocchio (1940) IMDb |
| “When You Wish upon a Star” (7) | |
| Porgy and Bess (1959) IMDb |
| “Summertime” (52) | |
| The Producers (1968) IMDb |
| “Springtime for Hitler” (80) | |
| Risky Business (1983) IMDb |
| “Old Time Rock and Roll” (100) | |
| Road to Morocco (1942) IMDb |
| “(We’re Off on the) Road to Morocco” (95) | |
| Rocky (1976) IMDb |
| “Gonna Fly Now” (58) | |
| The Rose (1979) IMDb |
| “The Rose” (83) | |
| The Sandpiper (1965) IMDb |
| “The Shadow of Your Smile” (77) | |
| Saturday Night Fever (1977) IMDb |
| “Stayin’ Alive” (9) | |
| Shaft (1971) IMDb |
| “Theme from ‘Shaft’” (38) | |
| Shall We Dance (1937) IMDb |
| “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” (34) | |
| Show Boat (1936) IMDb |
| “Ol’ Man River” (24) | |
| Singin’ in the Rain (1952) IMDb |
| “Singin’ in the Rain” (3) | |
| “Make ’em Laugh” (49) | |
| “Good Morning” (72) | |
| Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938) IMDb |
| “Some Day My Prince Will Come” (19) | |
| Song of the South (1947) IMDb |
| “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” (47) | |
| The Sound of Music (1965) IMDb |
| “The Sound of Music” (10) | |
| “My Favorite Things” (64) | |
| “Do Re Mi” (88) | |
| South Pacific (1958) IMDb |
| “Some Enchanted Evening” (28) | |
| The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) IMDb |
| “Nobody Does It Better” (67) | |
| A Star Is Born (1954) IMDb |
| “The Man That Got Away” (11) | |
| A Star Is Born (1976) IMDb |
| “Evergreen (Love Theme from ‘A Star Is Born’)” (16) | |
| Stormy Weather (1943) IMDb |
| “Stormy Weather” (30) | |
| Summer Stock (1950) IMDb |
| “Get Happy” (61) | |
| Swing Time (1936) IMDb |
| “The Way You Look Tonight” (43) | |
| The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) IMDb |
| “The Windmills of Your Mind” (57) | |
| Titanic (1997) IMDb |
| “My Heart Will Go On” (14) | |
| Top Hat (1935) IMDb |
| “Cheek to Cheek” (15) | |
| The Way We Were (1973) IMDb |
| “The Way We Were” (8) | |
| West Side Story (1961) IMDb |
| “Somewhere” (20) | |
| “America” (35) | |
| “Tonight” (59) | |
| When Harry Met Sally . . . (1989) IMDb |
| “It Had to Be You” (60) | |
| The Wizard of Oz (1939) IMDb |
| “Over the Rainbow” (1) | |
| “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead” (82) | |
| Working Girl (1988) IMDb |
| “Let the River Run” (91) | |
| Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) IMDb |
| “The Yankee Doodle Boy” (71) | |
| Young Frankenstein (1974) IMDb |
| “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (89) |