"Streets of Philadelphia" - Bruce Springsteen

The "Philadelphia" soundtrack is awesome.

A good but not truly great song, IMHO. Catchy beat.

Still better than the movie.

Good song, not great, but it was SO cool of him to do.

I've become more partial to Neil Young's "Philadelphia" over the years.

The March 1994 Gap In-Store Playlist features "Streets Of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen!

Makes me cry when I hear it.

Dark times back then.

I think the Springsteen and Young songs are equally good in different ways. But the Boss was going to get the Oscar if for other reason that a superstar provided the opening sound for a movie that, in its time, was so important. I get the criticisms of it—I did at the time (and my best friend had just died of AIDS, so I knew the bleakness of the time first-hand), but it did work in US culture that was needed. Longtime Companion and Parting Glances were truer and grittier (Bruce Davison should have won the Oscar), but more people saw Demme’s film. That’s not nothing.

It was a big deal when this song won an Oscar. It was still an undecided time for mainstream gay acceptance.