On June 22, 2004, CBS aired a 3 hour special called “AFI – 100 Years, 100 Songs. Hosted by John Travolta, the countdown from the American Film Institute featured clips of 100 songs.
Clay Aiken joined Burt Bacharach, Celine Dion, Barry Gibb, Barbra Streisand, and Paul Simon who commented on the songs in the Top 100.
The 100 songs were chosen by 1,500 “industry experts”; songs were evaluated on quality of music and lyrics as well as their cultural impact and legacy. “Over the Rainbow” – the Judy Garland anthem from “The Wizard of Oz” – was voted the greatest movie song ever.
The top ten list of greatest movie tunes follows:
Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz
As Time Goes By from Casablanca
Singin’ in the Rain from Singin’ in the Rain
Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s
White Christmas from Holiday Inn
Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate
When You Wish Upon a Star from Pinnochio
The Way We Were from The Way We Were
Stayin’ Alive from Saturday Night Fever
The Sound of Music from The Sound of Music
Commenting on “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, Clay said:
“Movie music does not have to be soaring love ballads. Lose Yourself is definitely an example of a movie song that makes a movie much more hip and much more popular for today’s culture.”
When commenting on “Unchained Melody” from Ghost, Clay said his mother had a dream that Clay would record a cover of Unchained Melody and it would be a big hit. One week later, LeAnn Rimes came out with the recording and it became a big hit. The hopes of Clay’s mom were dashed. Clay also commented that he was in 4th grade when Ghost was released and that he did not understand the significance of the hands on the potter’s wheel during the song.
Another of Clay’s comments brought a laugh when he shared that he tried hard to learn to spell supercalfragalisticexpialidocious.
100 Years, 100 Songs, with the American Film Institute had an audience of 12.3 million people. How many of those people were fans of Clay Aiken?
Watch the video below to see Clay’s part of the AFI show.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUUzhRJnC7g
Oh my gosh, I love the song When You Wish Upon a Star (always makes me teary eyed).
I love the American Film Institute Top 100 lists!! Having Clay Aiken on the top 100 movie songs was just icing on the cake!!
When Clay Aiken was on AFI it was totally awesome. Aother favourite show to be revisited often,
Thanks for the video!!
Hard to believe this was 5 years ago. Thanks for the article!
It was so nice to see this video again. I so remember being all excited to see this. That was some hot scene from Ghost. It was wonderful having him on this show.
Thanks for finding that and putting that up! I’d never seen it before and it’s always good to find out there’s something you hadn’t seen and watch it for the first time!
5 years ago? Wow… seems like yesterday…
Loved seeing it again… thanks..
I just LOVE Clay Aiken!
Isn’t it amazing all the things we have seen Clay in over the course of 6 1/2 years….
Thank you CANN for bringing these over to us…I forgot all about Clay being on this programme..but at the time…..I do remember sitting there just waiting for Clay…..hahahaha This is great..
Hugs,
Judy
That was so nice to watch again. I had completely forgotten about it…I love this site!
It was so nice to see Clay’s part in that program again . Hearing his charming comments and memories put a big smile on my face .
wow, 5 years ago!! Thanks for showing it to us again!
Interesting to see the list of songs. Clay was very good on this show. Thanks for posting the information.
OMG! When will this be aired?? Or was it aired already?
Rejenne…………This show was in 2004. We are so lucky to have videos of the shows so we can see what Clay has done on TV.
That was so much fun to see again. I remember how excited I was that night. But, it was hard waiting for him to have his turn. Nice to see all of his parts all at once.
Thanks so much!!