Best Musical Number in a Movie

No love for Julie up in the Alps singing "The Sound of Music"?

Meryl, "The Winner Takes It All"

Liza for "Mein Heir", plus amazing choreography.

Judy and Liza should be the winners.

Hindi Sad Diamonds

No one should vote unless they've watched and are familiar with all the numbers listed by OP.

Where’s Singin’ in the Rain ?

It's HEARTS, not diamonds you fool!

Nothing beats 'The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti hat'. Let Freudians make of it what they will.

This is the correct answer

THIS is the correct answer:

ONLY those ten choices. You may have NO others. ONLY THOSE TEN COUNT!!!

Ahem.

This one recently grabbed hold of the number one spot.

You're all kidding, right?

Here's the best.

It's so beautiful the way it advances the film plot.

The Trolley Song The Man That Got Away

Judy Garland - “The Trolley Song” - “Meet Me in St. Louis”

Louis Jourdan - “Gigi” - “Gigi”

Gene Kelly - “Singin’ in the Rain” - “Singin’ in the Rain”

Robert Preston - “Trouble” -“The Music Man”

Paul Robeson - “Ol’ Man River” - “Show Boat”

Julie Andrews - “Do Re Mi” - “The Sound of Music”

Deborah Kerr/Marni Nixon - “Shall We Dance” - “The King and I”

Mitzi Gaynor - “Wonderful Guy” - “South Pacific”

“I Can’t Do It Alone” isn’t even the best Catherine Zeta-Jones number in Chicago. “All That Jazz” is a better showcase for her, and “Cell Block Tango” is the movie’s showstopper, even though the eternally young Miss Zeta-Jones doesn’t dominate.

And I don’t think “Hindi Sad Diamonds” is the best, but I’m glad R5 mentioned it. It is a fantastic number.

Donna Summer "Last Dance"

Diana Ross "Home" & "Don't Explain"

The Polka Dot Polka

Maybe this time is dramatic and advanced the story- cabaret is perhaps the best movie musical ever. But Liza’s voice (for me) is kind of ugly- she goes a half note flat within a a wide vibrato- and pushes rather than soars.like her mother and Streisand. Great sound pours and flows out of Judy and Barbra. Liza!s a great performer without a great voice, although she carries herself as though she has a great voice. That’s what she has not had a successful recording career. She is a performer, like Merman, but not a great singer. Judy and Barbra’s voices and artistry are for the ages.

But...but...Charlie....there's...

Who forgot Bette Midler’s “Stay with Me Baby” in The Rose - absolutely gut wrenching ( of the ten offered, Liza doing “Maybe This Time” 👍👍👍👍. These are two of the BEST !

Sorry for your poor choices. Here it is, the dream of every queen.

For me, it's Whitney singing Dolly's song "I Will Always Love You"

But I voted for Judy's Rainbow in WoO -- they originally were going to cut that song out of the movie! But thankfully, they changed their minds.

This is it.

What’s the main criteria OP? Since we are discussing films, if you’re scoring primarily on jaw-dripping visualization and camera-work then Don’t Rain On My Parade is hard to top - it seems much less impressive now in the age of CGI, computer controlled steadi-cams and drones but the train & tugboat shots were done with a just a helicopter, an incredibly skilled camera operator and an army of people getting everting in exactly the right place at exactly the right moment.

If choreography and a supreme sense of effortless perfection are most important, then I’d go with Kelly’s Singin’ In the Rain.

If the vocal performance & emotion are paramount then I’d vote for “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”

Marilyn Miller in the Wild Rose number in [italic] Sally [/italic].

I’ve always loved this number.

Oy, Tropical Nights- my case closed… had no idea how bad it got- and Whitney’s version of Always Love you is like being hit over the head with a hammer, repeatedly. Pipes without musicianship display 1. Dolly’s version much better.

Geez. Flamers flamers flamers. I like cool ROCK

Effie big number in Dreamgirls. And I am telling you..

The Greatest Showman - This Is Me

No love for the queen ?

Madonna - Don't Cry For Me Argentina

Today, June 22, marks the 53rd anniversary of the most tragic event in homosexual history, if not in all of world history.

Millions have never recovered.

from Abbott & Costello's Buck Privates

One of the best dance scenes.

"Dancing in the Dark" from The Band Wagon

I love The Varsity Drag

You’re all wrong. It is Shady Dame From Seville by both Julie A and Robert P.

I LOVE that song R35 ! Watch her singing it on Graham Norton,its even better than the movie clip!

Gene Kelley singing and dancing to Singing in the Rain in the movie of the same name.

America - WSS, 1962

Special Mention, for surprise:

If you are going to do Barbra then you need to include "Before The Parade Passes By". The largest musical number ever filmed which included 5000 extras in period costumes. It cost half a million dollars (in 1968) to film, which doesn't count the 2.25 million dollar recreation of 1890's 5th Avenue on the Fox backlot.

And the end of the number where Barbra holds the final note as the camera pulls back to show the entire parade surrounding her is pretty spectacular.

A shame the lead dancer was the least talented on the stage, but that was a plot device.

Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley singing Glasgow, written by Oscar nominee Mary Steenburgen.

Judy, Summer Stock, o

r46, the parade in Hello, Dolly takes place on 14th Street, not Fifth Avenue. It's The 14th Street Association Parade.

Come on...........

Don't make them like this anymore.

Who can't help but sing along?

More than just singing! Let's go with Kitty Carlisle in Where Do They Come From (And Where Do They Go)?

“Good Morning” or “Make ‘em Laugh” in Singin’ in the Rain.

that was a hell of a last note, r46

Vera Zorina and Eddie Albert in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. From when movies were movies.

R27 Rainbow got my vote, too. It’s the one song where her scooping doesn’t take over - I love it’s simplicity.

Carol Lynley, The Poseidon Adventure

Surprised this hasn’t gotten a mention

I’m feeling transcendental… am I here??

Find someone to love you the way Ewan loves Nicole.

Hello dolly!

Ann-Margret in Tommy (1975)

Don't forget the magic of Cher

R50 While it may be the 14th Street Parade the finale of the number was filmed on the 5th Avenue set. In John DeCuir's black and white rendering in the link below, the building with the modified onion domes in the center is the original Astoria Hotel on 5th Avenue (before it was demolished to build the Empire State Building) and the building with the Heinz sign was at the intersections of 5th Avenue, Broadway and 23rd Streets.

^ Which you can see below.

R66 - that's a great link, but even there it describes the set as an NCY pastiche that reproduced no actual location precisely. It is neither 5th ave nor 14th street -- more like Disneyland's Main Street -- a recontextualized fantasy. There was never an elevated stop or the old Grand Central on 5th Avenue, for example; nor does 5th ever intersect with Bowery or Mulberry.

"American Cinematographer described the set: “It is a complex of 60 buildings involving reproductions of intersections of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, Broadway and Mulberry street, with subsections for Madison Square Park, 14th Street and the Bowery. Involved are re-creations of Tony Pastor’s theatre, the Hoffman House, Fifth Avenue hotel, the Waldorf Astoria and old Grand Central Station.” They added that, because of logistics, the set “is exact in every tiny detail, but inexact geographically.”

Pass That Peace Pipe

More Ann-Margret

The original was much better than the remake's version

Not all that all known, but it's as hard to take as Veronica Lake.

The greatest MGM production number.

Not a movie...per se.

I ADORE THE KESSLER SISTERS! bless you, r74!

This is better than anything in ANNIE GET YOUR GUN.

Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch

And this number directly follows

And the score is just as good as ANNIE GRT YIOUR GUN.

I'm with R53 (Seven Brides Barn Dance).

To me, "musical number" is more than just the vocals. It is the whole enchilada (music, performance, choreography, direction, hair, movement, costumes, lighting, energy, etc). The Barn Dance is one of best musical numbers of the decade that typified big Hollywood musicals.

If you are talking about best performance by an individual, then Garland, Merman, Minelli and Streisand are all definite contenders.

For r75...

Highlights!

I'm not even kidding with this, although there are some great songs on this thread, including South Park.

Nothing will ever top this.

Sheena Easton - For Your Eyes Only 👀

One...

Anyone Here for Love?

OMG R54. I clicked to see Kitty Carlisle because I thought she was just a game show panelist.

There were naked women in the first part, with fig leaves over their nipples and crotch and then, about minute 4, women lie down on the floor and spread their legs open. WTF?

In the comments, someone said it was made in 1931 before the "code" came in and made films prudish. I feel like I was watching softcore porn

PAINT YOUR WAGON, bitches!

Clint Eastwood talks to the trees, although his dance partners are truly wooden.

Brilliant and forgotten.

Cheryl Barnes in Hair

For an oldie, I think The Three B's, from Best Foot Forward (1943), is pretty dynamic. June Allyson, Nancy Walker and Gloria De Haven crushed it. (Sorry, not the clearest print.)

Steppin' to the Bad Side from Dreamgirls is a lot of fun!

r88: I'm glad you'r a fan of that number too!

Frustrating its a bit out of focus! But its a killer-diller all right.

From HELLZAPOPPIN' (1941). One of the GREAT ones. Whitey's Lindy-Hoppers are electrifying.

And why not?

R72. Sorry, I didn't know you had posted it, because you didn't identify it in the post and I didn't click on it. Anyway, glad someone else likes it!

Great choreography and camera angles...

From This Moment On in Kiss Me Kate is one of the best. With Ann Miller, Bob Fosse, Bobby Van and Tommy Rall. Bobby Van maybe isn't quite up to the other guys, being more of a tap dancer...but I always found him cute.

Hope nobody posted this already.

This one may be a little better visually (though somewhat fast). Also should have mentioned Jeanne Coyne and Carol Haney.

this

Meh, r97, needs more Roses.

R97 I do really like Roz's Rose's Turn. Even if the movie is on TV and I'm not really watching it, I'll stop and watch it. She's a great actress and goes through so many emotions in the number - and also seems to realize, as a character, she's a little ridiculous. I can't explain it. It's a very sophisticated take on the number.

r98 this is the best video on the internet lmao!! No one can top queen Ethel. I just love everything about the RR version even though partly dubbed. I think later versions should've kept the campiness of it all, especially with the costumes. Its terrific entertainment!

He does wonderful work, r100.

OP, “I SAID THE WOMAN IN THE MAH-OO-N!!”

Glenn Miller, The Nicholas Brothers, and Dorothy Dandridge

Good, at least it didn't turn into another thread about who's the best Rose in Gypsy.

[quote]Good, at least it didn't turn into another thread about who's the best Rose in Gypsy.

That honor was bestowed long ago upon Kay Medford, r104.

R105 Lalalalalala not listening...

@r106 I agree Kay Medford is hard to listen to. Patti was the best for sure wouldn't you say?

Make it stop