Songs That Won Both Oscar and Top Songwriting Grammy: Full List

From: Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Songwriters: Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer

Won Oscar: April 9, 1962

Won Grammy: May 29, 1962

Notes: Audrey Hepburn sang this gorgeous ballad in a memorable fire-escape scene in the film, for which she received a best actress nod. Andy Williams performed it on the Oscar telecast. It remained his signature song for the rest of his life. Mercer thanked them both in accepting the Oscar: “I’d like to say that I’m very proud that you like our song. I’d like to thank you, Audrey. Thank you, Andy. And martinis for everybody.”

The soundtrack album, featuring a recording of the song by Mancini and his orchestra, topped the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks.

From: Days of Wine and Roses

Songwriters: Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer

Won Oscar: April 8, 1963

Won Grammy: May 12, 1964

Notes: Blake Edwards directed Days of Wine of Roses, as he had Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which makes the Edwards/Mancini & Mercer partnership one of the most fruitful in film music history. Mancini’s recording of this song, featuring a vocal chorus, was heard in the film, which starred Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick.

Frank Sinatra presented the Oscar to Mancini and Mercer. But first Sinatra took a jab at the Broadway and recording star who had sung all of the nominated songs on the telecast. “Earlier this evening … Mr. Robert Goulet sang the five nominated songs by popular demand of the songwriters, and you’ll excuse the expression, music lovers everywhere.” Sinatra later recorded the song for his album Days of Wine and Roses, Moon River, and Other Academy Award Winners, which made the top 10 on the Billboard 200 in May 1964.

The melancholy song is sometimes overshadowed by “Moon River,” which was inevitable, but it’s a classic in its own right. Best line: “A door marked ‘Nevermore’/ That wasn’t there before.”

From: The Sandpiper

Songwriters: Johnny Mandel & Paul Francis Webster

Won Oscar: April 18, 1966

Won Grammy: March 15, 1966

Notes: This song sounds like it could have been written in the heyday of the Great American Songbook. A vocal chorus performed the song in the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton film, which was directed by Vincente Minnelli. Barbara McNair sang it on the Oscar telecast. Tony Bennett sang it on the Grammy-branded The Best on Record TV show, which aired on May 16, two months after the winners had been announced.

From: The Way We Were

Songwriters: Alan & Marilyn Bergman & Marvin Hamlisch

Won Oscar: April 2, 1974

Won Grammy: March 1, 1975

Notes: The Oscar for best original song was co-presented by Burt Bacharach, a past and future winner in that category. In accepting it, Marilyn Bergman thanked Barbra Streisand, who she called “the best singer that any lyric writer could ever have singing their song.” Streisand, of course, starred in the Sydney Pollack romantic drama with Robert Redford and turned the song into a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 (her first!). Hamlisch thanked Streisand’s long-time manager Marty Erlichman – “a man who really believed in this song and really helped us all the way.”

Streisand declined to perform the song on the Oscar telecast (where she was a best actress nominee for her performance in the film). Instead, Peggy Lee did the honors. Streisand finally performed the song on the Oscars in 2013, as a tribute to Hamlisch, who had died the previous year.

Gladys Knight & the Pips sang a medley of the song of the year nominees on the 1975 Grammy telecast and presented the award to Hamlisch. The R&B group’s live version of “The Way We Were,” coupled with “Try to Remember,” became a top 15 hit on the Hot 100 that summer.

From: A Star Is Born

Songwriters: Barbra Streisand & Paul Williams

Won Oscar: March 28, 1977

Won Grammy: Feb. 23, 1978

Notes: The Oscar for best original song was presentedby Neil Diamond, Streisand’s former classmate at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, and her future duet partner on the smash “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” Streisand won an Oscar for songwriting eight years after winning for acting in Funny Girl. She is, to this day, the only person to win in both of those capacities. “In my wildest dreams I never, never could ever imagine winning an Academy Award for writing a song,” she said on winning her second Oscar.

In his acceptance speech, Williams was ready with a funny line, as usual: “I was gonna thank all the little people and then I remembered I am the little people.” Williams also thanked Ian Freebairn-Smith, who arranged the song – and went on to win a Grammy for best arrangement accompanying vocalist(s).

Streisand performed “Evergreen” on the Oscar telecast. The song became her second No. 1 hit on the Hot 100. The A Star Is Born soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks. It’s Streisand’s only film soundtrack to top the chart.

From: You Light Up My Life

Songwriter: Joseph Brooks

Won Oscar: April 3, 1978

Won Grammy: Feb. 23, 1978

Notes: Debby Boone’s recording of this song was the first single in the history of the Hot 100 to log 10 weeks at No. 1. She performed the song on both the Grammy and Oscar telecasts. The film’s star, Didi Conn, had lip-synched the song in the film (to Kacey Cisyk’s vocals). The song won the Grammy in a tie with “Evergreen” – the only tie in a Big Four category in Grammy history. In his Grammy acceptance speech, Brooks pointed out that many of the A&R professionals in the audience had turned down his song, some of them multiple times, adding “This tastes so sweet.”

Screen legend Fred Astaire presented Brooks with his Oscar. “You Light Up My Life” was the first song written by a solitary writer to win both the Oscar for best original song and the Grammy for song of the year. Brooks also wrote, produced and directed the film by himself. His song has brought inspiration to millions over the years. Sadly, Brooks took his own life in 2011.

From: Aladdin

Songwriters: Alan Menken & Tim Rice

Won Oscar: March 29, 1993

Won Grammy: March 1, 1994

Notes: This is the only song from an animated film to both win an Oscar for best original song and a Grammy for song of the year. In his Oscar acceptance speech, Menken thanked Lea Salonga and Brad Kane, who sang the song on the film soundtrack, and Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle, whose pop version of the song, subtitled “Aladdin’s Theme,” was featured over the end credits and became a No. 1 single on the Hot 100. He also thanked Walter Afanasieff, who produced their single; Robbie Buchanan, who also worked on it; and Disney executive Chris Montan “for never giving up on this song.”

For his part, Rice graciously saluted Menken’s previous lyric-writing partner, Howard Ashman, who had died of AIDS in 1991. “I’m extremely lucky to be standing in his shoes. I know he’d be here today if he were still alive.” If you’re wondering why the Menken/Ashman classic “Beauty and the Beast” isn’t on this list, it won the Oscar but it lost the Grammy for song of the year to Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven.” Told you it’s tough to win both of these awards.

A pair legends, Quincy Jones and Lena Horne, presented Menken & Rice with the Oscar for best original song.

From: Philadelphia

Songwriter: Bruce Springsteen

Won Oscar: March 21, 1994

Won Grammy: March 1, 1995

Notes: Whitney Houston presented the Oscar for best original song, which went to a fellow New Jersey native.Springsteen opened his Oscar acceptance speech with a quip: “Gee, this is the first song I ever wrote for a motion picture, so I guess it’s all downhill from here.” He then saluted Neil Young, who had been nominated for writing another song from the film: “Neil, I gotta share this with you.”

Springsteen was uncommonly philosophical for an awards acceptance speech: “You do your best work and you hope that it pulls out the best in your audience and some piece of it spills over into the real world and into people’s everyday lives, and it takes the edge off of fear and allows us to recognize each other through our veil of differences.  I always thought that was one of the things popular art was supposed to be about.”

And Springsteen thanked the film’s director, Jonathan Demme: “I just want to say thank you, Jonathan, for having me as a part of your picture. I’m glad my song has contributed to its ideas and its acceptance.” Springsteen sang the song on the film soundtrack and on the Oscar telecast.

Nearly a year later, Springsteen performed the song to open the Grammy telecast. In accepting the Grammy for song of the year, Springsteen expressed his appreciation to “the folks who’ve come up to me in restaurants and on the street who’ve lost their sons or their lovers or their friends to AIDS and said the song meant something to them.”

From: Titanic

Songwriters: James Horner & Will Jennings

Won Oscar: March 28, 1998

Won Grammy: Feb. 24, 1999

Notes: Titanic director James Cameron had not initially wanted a pop song in his film epic about the 1912 disaster, but he reconsidered when Horner, who had scored the film, brought him this outstanding song. Horner alluded to Cameron’s change-of-heart in his Oscar acceptance speech: “Jim Cameron, thank you for being in a good mood that day when I brought you the song.”

Madonna, who presented the Oscar for best original song that year, was a little cheeky in her presentation, prefacing the name of the winner by saying “What a shocker!” Her comment played off the fact that the win was a foregone conclusion. Celine Dion’s recording reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 and was featured on two Billboard 200-topping albums – the Titanic soundtrack (which reigned for 16 consecutive weeks) and her own Let’s Talk About Love.

Celine Dion sang the song on both the Grammy and Oscar telecasts. She performed it on the Grammy telecast in February 1998, a year before the single and song were eligible for awards consideration.