The 40 best Oscar-winning songs of all time, ranked

Best Original Song is the lone Academy Award that can be untethered from its origin. By definition, categories like acting, directing, cinematography, set, and costume design are inherently anchored to the film they represent. Not so with a song. Sure, some songs can best be understood within the context of a film—and, at times, a song gains stature from its presence within a movie—but the greatest Best Original Songs exist in their own realm, inspired by the story on the screen but not needing a film to have an emotional impact. What follows are the 40 Oscar-winning songs that have made great, lasting impressions, either within their own universe or ours.

40. “Say You, Say Me” (White Nights, 1985)

Faced with writing a theme song to , a convoluted Cold War drama concerning an American dancer who defects to the Soviet Union and his quest to bring a Russian defector back home, Lionel Richie decided to chuck the plot out the window and play to his strengths. He dialed up the melodrama along with the sentiment, writing a syrupy verse that built to a show-stopping bridge—the kind of escalation destined for the silver screen.