On March 21, 1994, Bruce Springsteen added to his many career accolades by winning an Academy Award in the Best Original Song category for “Streets of Philadelphia.” Springsteen wrote and recorded the song for the Jonathan Demme-directed film Philadelphia, which starred Tom Hanks as a closeted gay man who contracts AIDS.
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Neil Young also was nominated in the category for a song he wrote for the movie, simply titled “Philadelphia.” The other nominees were “Again” from Poetic Justice, written by Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis; “The Day I Fall in Love” from Beethoven’s 2nd, by Carole Bayer Sager, James Ingram, and Clif Magness; and “A Wink and a Smile” from Sleepless in Seattle, by Marc Shaiman and Ramsey McLean.
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Whitney Houston presented the Best Original Song honor. “Before announcing the winner, the legendary singer joked, During the course of the evening, you have heard the five songs nominated for original song. To refresh your memories, I offered to sing them all again, but they said just read the names.”
As Springsteen reached the podium, cameras captured his wife and E Street Band mate Patti Scialfa grinning broadly and clapping in the audience alongside his manager, Jon Landau.
Springsteen’s Acceptance Speech
“Thank you. See, this is the first song I ever wrote for a motion picture, so I guess it’s all downhill from here,” the Boss said in accepting the honor. “Neil, I gotta share this with you.”
Springsteen then talked reflectively about what he hoped to achieve in writing a song.
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“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 the fear and allows us to recognize each other through our veil of differences,” he said. “I always thought that was one of the things popular art was supposed to be about, along with the merchandising and all the other stuff.”
He concluded his speech by thanking Demme “for having me as a part of your picture,” adding, “[I’m] glad my song has contributed to its ideas and its acceptance. Love you, Pats, and thank you all for inviting me to your party.”
Springsteen’s Performance at the Oscars
Earlier in the ceremony, Springsteen delivered a heartfelt performance of the melancholy song. He was introduced by Antonio Banderas, who said, “For the movie Philadelphia, the producers turned to a contemporary artist who had never written a song expressly for a feature film, and asked him to create music and lyrics that would reflect the power of the subject matter. His maiden effort was so successful, it earned him an Oscar nomination.”
Hanks also was honored with a Best Actor Oscar for Philadelphia.
Springsteen Impressed His Dad with His Oscar
In his 2016 memoir Born to Run, Springsteen recalled bringing his Oscar to show his father, with whom he’d long had a contentious relationship and who had strongly disapproved of Bruce’s decision to pursue a music career.
“I walked into the kitchen, where my father was still sitting and smoking like a blue-collar Buddha and plopped [the trophy] down on the table in front of him,” Springsteen wrote. “He looked at it, looked at me and said, ‘I’ll never tell anybody what to do ever again.’”
“Streets of Philadelphia” Also Was a Success Single
“Streets of Philadelphia” wound up becoming a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S., the single peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the U.K., it reached No. 2, Springsteen’s highest-charting song ever in that country.
The song was released on the Philadelphia soundtrack, and on Springsteen’s 1995 Greatest Hits compilation.
Springsteen also won four Grammys for “Streets of Philadelphia” at the 1995 ceremony. The tune was honored for Song of the Year, Best Rock Song, Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television.
Springsteen Also Received an Oscar Nod in 1996
In 1996, Springsteen was nominated again for a Best Original Song Oscar, for “Dead Man Walkin’” from the film Dead Man Walking. It lost out to “Colors of the Wind,” a song written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz for the animated movie Pocahontas.
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