Randy Newman Leads Oscar Nominees for Best Song

Posted on Feb 2nd 2010 12:30PM by Mike Ayers

With the Oscar nominations released this morning, a few surprises came within the musical categories. Only two types of music are honored: Best Score and Best Original Song, with past winners of the latter including the Swell Season and Bob Dylan. This year, Randy Newman leads the charge with two nominations in the category for 'Almost There' and 'Down in New Orleans,' both from the animated film, 'The Princess and the Frog.'

If you're planning music for a film and want an Oscar nomination, Newman has essentially become the go-to guy. His career has yielded 17 prior nominations for either scores or songs, with a majority stemming from animated films. Over the years, he's best known for 'Toy Story's 'You've Got a Friend in Me' and 'Monsters, Inc.'s 'If I Didn't Have You,' the latter of which earned him the Oscar.

Going up against Newman is Reinhardt Wagner for the song 'Loin de Paname' from the film 'Paris 36,' Maury Yeston's 'Take It All' from 'Nine' and Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett's 'The Weary Kind (The Theme From 'Crazy Heart').' Bingham and Burnett recently took home the Golden Globe for that song and probably stand the best shot at knocking off Newman.

For Best Original Score, 'Avatar,' 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox,' 'The Hurt Locker,' 'Sherlock Holmes' and 'Up' all received nominations. In this category, familiar faces are present, including previous Oscar winner James Horner for 'Avatar' (he won for Cameron's 'Titanic') as well as Hans Zimmer for 'Sherlock Holmes.' 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox' is scored by Alexandre Desplat, but also features a contribution from Jarvis Cocker. Already, Michael Giacchio took home the Golden Globe 'Up' and is receiving his second Oscar nomination after scoring 'Ratatouille.' Lastly, Marco Beltramit and Buck Sanders' score for the critically acclaimed 'The Hurt Locker' rounds out the nine nominations the film received.

As was reported several weeks ago, Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O was deemed ineligible for consideration regarding her original score for 'Where the Wild Things Are,' most likely due to its "predominant use of songs." Brian Eno also missed the boat for his score to 'The Lovely Bones' but only because he didn't get the paperwork in on time.

The Academy Awards air on March 7 at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on ABC.