R.I.P. George Martin (1926-2016)

George Martin

On March 8, 2016, George Martin died in his sleep at the age of 90 in Wiltshire, England. While he had a prolific career working behind the scenes in music, he is easily best remembered for his work with The Beatles - of whom he was a frequent collaborator. At one point he was so popular that he was considered to be "The Fifth Beatle" thanks to his occasional input on how to orchestrate songs, such as adding an orchestra to "Yesterday." Beyond this, he helped to compose music for dozens of performers as well as composed the theme songs for several James Bond films. His work is likely so popular that you have already heard it once today on the radio. His work continues to live on, even if the status of how much involvement he had with crafting the hits seems to be suspected by his collaborators.

Best Song: "It Goes Like It Goes" (1979)

Scene from Norma Rae

Welcome to Best Song, a new weekly column released on Sunday dedicated to chronicling the Best Original Song category over the course of its many decades. The goal is to listen to and critique every song that has ever been nominated in the category as well as find the Best Best Song and the Best Loser. By the end, we'll have a comprehensive list of this music category and will hopefully have a better understanding not only of the evolution, but what it takes to receive a nomination here. It may seem easy now, but wait until the bad years.

Birthday Take: Dudley Moore in Arthur" (1981)

Dudley Moore

Welcome to The Birthday Take, a column dedicated to celebrating Oscar nominees and winners' birthdays by paying tribute to the work that got them noticed. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive retrospective, but more of a highlight of one nominated work that makes them noteworthy. The column will run whenever there is a birthday and will hopefully give a dense exploration of the finest performances and techniques applied to film. So please join me as we blow out the candles and dig into the delicious substance.