‘Can’t Stop The Feeling!’ Is More Popular Than Any Other Song Originally Written for the Movies

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 19, 3:00PM EDT

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‘Can’t Stop The Feeling!’ Is More Popular Than Any Other Song Originally Written for the Movies — © Jason Kempin / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images

Soundtracks are as much a part of movies as the films themselves, and over the years they have yielded many memorable songs. Among the winners of the Oscar for Best Original Song are such enduring classics as “Over The Rainbow” (1939), “White Christmas” (1942), “The Shadow of Your Smile” (1965), and “My Heart Will Go On” (1997). (These are all the most popular songs originally written for movies.)

However, the most popular song originally written for the movies according to Billboard was nominated for the Oscar, but did not win. “Can’t Stop The Feeling!,” on the soundtrack of the animated film “Trolls,” was on the ballot in 2016 – but it lost to “City of Stars” from “La La Land.”

“Can’t Stop The Feeling!” was performed by one of the biggest stars of the last several decades – Justin Timberlake The song spent one week at the No.1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and also reached the top slot on the official charts of 16 other countries. Timberlake was an executive producer for music on “Trolls,” which did well, bringing in $346 million.

It would be easy to argue that Timberlake’s career is much larger than the song or movie. He has sold 88 million albums worldwide. He started his career as a singer for the boy-band NSYNC. Since then, he has not only released a number of well received albums. He has also starred in a number of major movies, either live or as a voice actor. He is definitely one of the solo artists who were more successful than their bands.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.