Best score and best song often go together, as 'Slumdog' reminds us

Ever since the seventh Oscars in 1934, the Academy has been dishing out statuettes for best score and best song. Though the names of those categories may have changed over the years (there were two scoring categories for many of them, one for dramatic or comedy pictures and one for musical pictures), one thing has not: the winner of one often wins the other.

One could be forgiven for forgetting this trend when filling out projections this year, since the two categories last corresponded five years ago for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." But "Slumdog Millionaire" probably managed the feat for much the same reason that film did: it was easily the most popular film on the ballot, and consequently won almost all of the categories for which it was nominated -- best picture coattails, if you will. (It also probably deserved to!)

Here is a list at the 19 films that have won Oscars for both best score and best song over the 74 years that the categories have been presented (26% of the time):

• "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) -- best music (original score) and best original song ("Over the Rainbow")
• "Pinocchio" (1940) -- best music (original score) and best original song ("When You Wish Upon a Star")
• "High Noon" (1952) -- best music (score of a dramatic or comedy picture) and best original song ("Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin' ")
• "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" (1955) -- best music (score of a dramatic or comedy picture) and best original song ("Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing")
• "Gigi" (1958) -- best music (scoring of a musical picture) and best original song ("Gigi")
• "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961) -- best music (score of a dramatic or comedy picture) and best original song ("Moon River")
• "Mary Poppins" (1964) -- best music (original music score) and best original song ("Chim Chim Cher-ee")
• "Born Free" (1966) -- best music (original music score) and best original song ("Born Free")
• "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) -- best music (original score) and best original song ("Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head")
• "The Way We Were" (1973) -- best original score and best original song ("The Way We Were")
• "Fame" (1980) -- best original score and best original song ("Fame")
• "The Little Mermaid" (1989) -- best original score and best original song ("Under the Sea")
• "Beauty and the Beast" (1991) -- best original score and best original song ("Beauty and the Beast")
• "Aladdin" (1992) -- best original score and best original song ("A Whole New World")
• "The Lion King" (1994) -- best original score and best original song ("Can You Feel the Love Tonight?")
• "Pocahontas" (1995) -- best original musical or comedy score and best original song ("Colors of the Wind")
• "Titanic" (1997) -- best original dramatic score and best original song ("My Heart Will Go On")
• "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003) -- best original score and best original song ("Into the West")
• "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008) -- best original score and best original song ("Jai Ho")

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Photo: "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)