Episode 42: Your Laugh Turned On the Sun (1974)

The list of five songs nominated for the 1974 Academy Award were about as diverse as you could get. Not only did Mel Brooks give us a comedy song about the fake sheriff at the center of his movie Blazing Saddles, but an unknown songwriting duo offered up a jaunty song about a loveable dog. There's also the conventional love ballad and a sweet tribute to a fictional child in a musical that marked the return of legendary songwriters Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Host Jeff Commings offers up a somber piece of history regarding the five nominated songs and how their unpopularity made this year seemingly forgettable in the list of Oscar-nominated tunes.