The Golden Raspberries started off as an informal joke. Something for a publicist and his friends to do after the Oscars had ended. Over time, it has become and enduring and irreverent tradition. In theory, The Razzies poke fun at the worst movies of the year. But like any awards ceremony, the Razzies frequently make the wrong call. We’re going back and looking at the history of the Golden Raspberry Awards one year at a time.
The eighteenth annual Razzies nominated the movies of 1997. Titanic and Men in Black were the highest-grossing movies that year. At the Oscars, James Cameron proved he was king of the world when he won Best Director and Robin Williams won Best Actor for Goodwill Hunting. Meanwhile, the Razzies were getting apocalyptic with The Postman.
Worst Original Song
- “The End Is the Beginning Is the End” from Batman & Robin, written by Billy Corgan
- “Fire Down Below” from Fire Down Below, music and lyrics by Steven Seagal and Mark Collie
- “How Do I Live” from Con Air, written by Diane Warren
- “My Dream” from Speed 2: Cruise Control, written by Orville Burrell, Robert Livingston, and Dennis Haliburton
- The entire song score from The Postman, words and music by Jeffrey Barr, Glenn Burke, John Coinman, Joe Flood, Blair Forward, Maria Machado, and Jono Manson
Winner: The Postman
Right from the beginning, the Razzies are setting the tone for this year’s awards. Instead of nominating an original song from The Postman in the category of Worst Original Song, they nominated the entire soundtrack which includes several previously recorded songs. Here’s a clip that contains a little of each.
But you probably want to hear Costner sing, don’t you? Of course you do. How could you not? Well here you go. Here’s Kevin Costner singing a duet with Amy Grant from the soundtrack of The Postman.
Maybe instead of directing and starring in post-apocalyptic movies, Costner should consider singing ballads?
Okay, here’s the bummer. I tried to find a clip for the song “Fire Down Below” which was apparently co-written by Blues legend Steven “Slim” Seagal. But I’m sorry to say I came up short on that one. I’ll try to make it up to you at some point.
This next song, “How Do I Live” was performed by both LeAnn Rimes and Trisha Yearwood in 1997. Rimes’ version was released first but somehow Yearwoord’s version from the Con Air soundtrack was still considered an original song.
This isn’t just a Razzie screw up. “How Do I Live” was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song. It lost the Oscar to “My Heart Will Go On” from the Titanic soundtrack. There’s a song no one got sick of hearing… Anyway, Yearwood’s version of “How Do I Live” is the rare recipient of nominations both for Worst Song and Best Song. You decide which nomination was more applicable.
Smashing Pumpkins did a Batman song. The Razzies like to nominate Batman songs. Just ask Bono.
An alternative version of the song was later used for Zach Snyder’s comic book movie, Watchmen, which just proves that Snyder is really the second coming of Joel Schumacher.
Huh. So here’s something I didn’t know. Shaggy was on the Speed 2 Soundtrack:
The song was titled “My Dream”. This is kind of ironic because the premise of Speed 2 (Die Hard on a cruise ship) came to director Jan de Bont. The director was so taken with the dream, he didn’t stop to ask himself how you do a Speed movie on a slow-moving luxury cruise liner.
Next: Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property and Worst New Star
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