This year, as ASCAP celebrates its 90th birthday, we have looked back at the tremendous impact that ASCAP music has made throughout the history of modern entertainment and the technology used to deliver it. From the Society's inception in the era of the player piano in 1914, ASCAP has embraced each new medium by which music is transmitted and each new market that enjoys that music: radio, film, television, cable television, the Internet. In each case, ASCAP, because it is member owned and operated, understood that these new technologies presented opportunities for greater revenues for creators. Because of its long history and expertise, ASCAP was best suited to simultaneously protect its members's rights and negotiate fair licenses with the people who used the new technology to transmit its members music.
In looking back at ASCAP's history, one common theme that emerges is how ASCAP has always been forward looking. ASCAP's 2003 Annual Report, which is contained in the print issue of the June Playback, demonstrates how The Society is leading the way into the future on many fronts, from educating members of Congress on creators' rights, to developing state-of-the-art music tracking technology, to providing innovative benefits to members that enhance their business of making music.
Speaking of history...I hope many of you were able to watch the recent television special, 100 Years...100 Songs, in which the American Film Institute (AFI) named the top 100 movie songs of all time. The list features an impressive 82 ASCAP songs.
The venerated #1 spot went to Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg's "Over the Rainbow,"
from The Wizard of Oz. Many of the others
are monumental works. At #2, there's Herman Hupfield's
"As Time Goes By," from Casablanca; at
#10, there's Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers'
"The Sound of Music"; at #20, there's Leonard Bernstein
and Stephen Sondheim's "Somewhere" from West
Side Story; at #54 is Rodgers and Hammerstein's
"Shall We Dance" from The King and I.
I think the ASCAP Founding Board members would be proud of our current Board members, who took 7 of the 100 spots. They are:
At #8, "The Way We Were" from The Way We Were:
Words/Music - Alan and Marilyn Bergman/Marvin Hamlisch
At #16, "Evergreen" from A Star is Born:
Words/Music - Paul Williams/Barbra Streisand;
At #23, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid:
Words/Music - Hal David/Burt Bacharach;
At #57, "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair:
Words/Music - Alan and Marilyn Bergman/Michel Legrand;
At #66, "Suicide is Painless" from M*A*S*H:
Words/Music - Mike Altman/Johnny Mandel;
At #74, "Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie:
Words/Music - Kenny Ascher/Paul Williams;
At #77, "The Shadow of Your Smile" from The Sandpiper:
Words/Music - Paul Francis Webster/Johnny Mandel
The list of ASCAP songs goes on and on and reflects the profound effect ASCAP music continues to have, not only on the medium of film, but on culture both here and around the world.
Marilyn Bergman
President and Chairman of the Board
