25th Sammy Film Music Awards

The Sammy Film Music Awards (SFMA) are the longest-running awards chosen exclusively for recordings of past and recent film music.

Words by Sammy Cahn

He certainly deserved the honor. Sammy received four Oscars for co-writing these songs:

"Three Coins in the Fountain" from
THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN (1954) -- music by Jule Styne
"All the Way" from
THE JOKER IS WILD (1957) -- music by James Van Heusen
"High Hopes" from
A HOLE IN THE HEAD (1959) -- music by James Van Heusen
"Call Me Irresponsible" from
PAPA'S DELICATE CONDITION (1963) -- music by James Van Heusen

Sammy also received an Emmy for his lyrics to "Love and Marriage" from the television production of OUR TOWN in 1955.

All five songs were recorded by Frank Sinatra, who was a longtime friend and an admirer of Sammy's lyrics.

-- Roger Hall

I Should Care: The Sammy Cahn Story

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Sammy Cahn Centennial Tribute

The Sammy Film Music Awards

25th Anniversary!

"What really makes the Sammy Awards worth checking out is the irregular addition
of irreverent and praiseworthy categories."
-- Timothy Sexton (Yahoo Network)

10 February 2013

By Roger Hall

You probably know about the Oscars but have you heard of the Sammys?

These awards have no connection to the Oscars, BAFTA, Golden Globes, or any other awards and are given in only one category -- film music.

They are based on the quality of film scores and songs recorded on CDs.

These awards are named in honor of Sammy Cahn, who was Oscar-nominated more than any other songwriter – 26 times in all between 1942 and 1973.

The first Sammy Awards were chosen for best score and song of 1988 – the year of Sammy Cahn’s 75^th birthday. When notified, Sammy said he was “flattered and honored" to have these awards named after him.

For many years, I was a guest on the popular radio program, "Music America," in Boston, hosted by Ron Della Chiesa. Some of these radio shows are included on the special CD: Oscar Meets Sammy - Film Music Awards On Radio.

The awards are based on CDs released or reviewed in 2012. This year, there is a return of Best Film Song category since it was discontinued five years ago. For the past few years film songs have been mostly forgettable.

This year there is a new category reflecting the increasing popularity of video games and interactive media.

Categories for the 25th Annual Sammy Film Music Awards:

As Sammy Cahn would say with words from one of his Oscar-winning songs, they are the CD nominees...

Following in the tradition of memorable fantasy scores by John Williams, this is a fast-paced and highly inventive score by the prolific Alexandre Desplat, now among the first rank of film composers.

A powerful and highly memorable score
by this most promising young film composer.

A stunningly beautiful song with music by Alexandre Desplat and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, superbly sung by Renee Fleming. It has the best elements (beautiful melody and lyrics) to make it a classic movie song.

Thomas Newman is a good film composer who has composed some fine scores in the past but I don't think this is one of them. To my ears this soundtrack is mostly a bunch of repetitive themes which don't make a worthwhile soundtrack and there are none of the memorable themes like the John Barry scores for Bond films. SKYFALL is also much too LOUD. Often when the volume is turned up, it sounds like an overblown music video which is also how the film itself frequently looks.

who have been producing high quality CDs
of vintage music for may years,
mostly for popular and less familiar 1950s sci-fi films, like

Since 1988, there have been 19 past film composers/ arrangers and 6 songwriters and lyric writers named for this Lifetime Achievement Award, each of them have made significant accomplishments in film music.

Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Alfred Newman, Max Steiner, Miklos Rozsa, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, Victor Young, Hugo Friedhofer, Johnny Green, Bronislau Kaper, Alex North, Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, Ken Darby, Aaron Copland, John Barry, and David Raksin.

Sammy Cahn, Johnny Mercer, James Van Heusen, Harry Warren,
Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.

This year the Lifetime Achievement Award for a past film composer, is chosen on the 100th anniversary of his birth. His name is...

The Sammy Lifetime Achievement Award was given to his daughter, Susan Moross Tarjan...