Oscar-Nominated Songs: The Ballad of Cat Ballou

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There’s a sign on a bar marquee that says, “No good story stars with a salad.” Maybe not, but I’m eating a salad while I befuddle you with yet another song on my list of favorite tunes that were nominated for the “Best Original Song” Academy Award. Here’s today’s tune. The Ballad of Cat Ballou - Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye And you’re thinking, didn’t I just use this song in my “ballad of” countdown? Why, yes, I did! Thanks for asking! (To be fair, I used the “surprise” rendition that Mike Mills and Peter Buck from R.E.M. threw out on Rockline one night.) Although this song didn’t win, Lee Marvin did take home an Oscar for his dual role in the film as Kid Shelleen and Tim Strawn. This song lost to “The Shadow of Your Smile” from The Sandpiper (and I thought, “Oh, that was in a movie??”) The movie was released four months after Nat King Cole died from lung cancer. The man singing the song with him, Stubby Kaye, was a well-known Vaudevillian who has sadly passed into deep obscurity. And if you’ve never seen the movie Cat Ballou, fortunately this song tells the entire story. The Ballad of Cat Ballou Written by Mack David and Jay Livingston Recorded by Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye From Cat Ballou, 1965 It’s a hanging day: