Springsteen, M.I.A., Jenny Lewis Short Listed For "Best Song" Oscar

Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler," M.I.A.'s Slumdog Millionaire contribution "O Saya," Jack White & Alicia Keys' "Another Way To Die," Beyoncé's "Once In a Lifetime" from Cadillac Records and Jenny Lewis' Bolt track "Barking At The Moon" are among the 49 songs on the eligibility list for Best Song at the next Academy Awards. Also up for contention are Miley Cyrus' "I Thought I Lost You," Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" and Peter Gabriel's Wall-E theme "Down To Earth," with all three joining Springsteen and Beyoncé's songs as this year's Golden Globe nominees.

Unlike years' past, when a film like Enchanted and Dreamgirls dominated the category, each film can only be represented by a maximum of two songs at the ceremony. High School Musical 3 leads the short list with 11 selections, but it's likely the songs will split the votes and wind up with no nominee. Also noteworthy: Danny Elfman's "The Little Things" from Wanted, Robyn Hitchcock's "Up To Our Nex" from Rachel Getting Married and the hilarious "Dracula's Lament" from Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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