“The Way You Look Tonight” from Swing Time with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers - only three years in and they’ve propelled two-thirds of the winners in this category. This song is by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, and truthfully, almost any song from this film is equally worthy.
This is really the first timeless song on this list. It makes people swoon in 2012 as easily as it did in 1936. It beat out two other equally timeless songs — “Night and Day” and “Pennies from Heaven” — as well as a few less memorable tunes. It’s worth noting that this song won on the strength of its simplicity — there’s no production number, just Fred at a piano. But it’s hard to argue with this one.