I just saw the CBS television special, Movies Rock, a tribute to the music of some of the best and most popular movies of the last century. It started with the last scene of The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland declaring, "There's no place like home." Then Beyonce came on stage at the Kodak Theater singing, "(Somewhere) Over the Rainbow". Among other entertaining musical performances: Carrie Underwood singing "The Sound of Music" from the movie of the same name, Usher performing Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain" number, West Side Story star Rita Moreno introducing Jennifer Hudson singing "Somewhere", Sweet Charity star Shirley MacLaine introducing Queen Latifah singing "Hey, Big Spender", Elton John singing his own "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King, and Tony Bennett singing "White Christmas" which originally appeared in Bing Crosby's Holiday Inn. Honorable mentions should go to Fergie's "Live and Let Die" (in which she gets hoisted up near the end), and the "Shaft" number performed by LLCoolJ and some other rappers. None of these performers should make you forget the original film moments but it's nice seeing today's stars give tribute to some of the most memorable and enjoyable music movie sequences that captivated us and still do for the last 100 years. While I agreed with my mom that Ms. Underwood didn't come close to Julie Andrews in her iconic moment, she did a very good job nonetheless. And how cool was it to see Harrison Ford introduce multiple-Oscar nominee and winner John Williams play some the most memorable movie scores from both his and other's movies. I especially loved his segueing Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho" theme to his own "Jaws"! If CBS reruns this show or it ends up on VHS and DVD, I'd recommended you see Movies Rock.
