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One of the most intriguing categories at the Oscars is Best Original Song, a category whose winners exemplify the cinematic power of a perfectly placed piece of music. Looking back at the past 70 years, the winners of the award are a worthy representation of the shifting tides of American music, including the brassy showstoppers of Broadway's golden age, the smooth pop of the '60s and '70s, and ephemeral one-off wonders like Three 6 Mafia's "Hard Out Here for a Pimp."

This playlist of Oscar winners and nominees kicks off with one of the red carpet's musical masters, Burt Bacharach, and rolls together some of our favorites through the ages. Perfectly calibrated for your Oscar night party, we start off nice and easy and build up to some rowdy contemporary jams from Eminem ("Lose Yourself") and Slumdog Millionaire ("Jai Ho!").