In honor of the upcoming Oscars, I should list my favorite movie-music moments. (Not that Oscar knows how to reward the true Best Songs, even out of the five they select: how did "You Light Up My Life" beat "Nobody Does It Better" in 1977 or "Lullaby of Broadway" beat "Cheek to Cheek" in 1935?)

So, here goes, in no particular order: Nicole Kidman dancing to "Sweet Home Alabama" for an entranced Joaquim Phoenix (To Die For); Jack Black's band striking up "Let's Get It On" in High Fidelity; Wayne and Garth headbanging to "Bohemian Rhapsody;" Timothy Hutton et al singing "Sweet Caroline" in the bar (Beautiful Girls); the tearful recollection of "Rolling With the Homies" in Clueless; Jamie Bell dancing through the streets of Durham as "A Town Called Malice" plays; Dustin Hoffman whistling "Mrs. Robinson"(!) to himself in The Graduate; Winona Ryder and gang dancing to "My Sharona" in the gas-station convenience store (Reality Bites); John Cusack holding up the boombox (of course); Michelle Pfeiffer singing "Making Whoopee" on the piano; seasons changing as Hugh Grant walks down the Portobello Road to "Ain't No Sunshine" (Notting Hill); the bittersweet use of "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and of "I Love the Nightlife" in Last Days of Disco; Abba songs punctuating Muriel's Wedding; that inimitable discussion of "Like a Virgin" in Reservoir Dogs; "No More Mr. Nice Guy" in the background as Wiley Wiggins gets paddled in Dazed and Confused; Faye Wong dancing to "California Dreaming" (Chungking Express); Tom Everett Scott hitting the drums too fast but just right in That Thing You Do!; and "Play it Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'"

The proliferation of mid-'90s movies in that list shows, I suppose, that often with favorite music moments it isn't the quality of the music that counts, it's where you are in time when you watch the movie. Ah, to be 16 and to have music mean everything again. That Thing You Do! is perhaps the best movie made about one-hit wonders, and it has one of my favorite break-up moments in a movie. Liv Tyler (as Faye) to Jonathon Schaech (as Jimmy): "I have wasted thousands and thousands of kisses on you.... Shame on me for kissing you with my eyes closed so tight."

And shame on me for wasting your time on self-indulgence. A big thanks to all of you who wrote in about epistolary songs--I'll list all credits in my next column after I have time to sort through my inbox.

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He's got time on his hands.