JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Movies with Fictional Songwriters

All-righty, I should know better than to post new topics when I'm run down with a cold and not thinking entirely straight, but here I go. I don't have a lot else to think about, besides how bad my throat hurts, so humor me. I need the distraction!

I can think of 2 movies off the top of my head where a fictional songwriter makes it big. I'm sure there's more. How about a list? And while we're at it, how about we vote on how realistic the situation is/was.

I'm not talking about biopics (real musicians' lives), I'm talking fictional characters. I haven't seen every movie in the universe, so I'm sure I've missed a few.

Here are the 2 on my mind:

101 Dalmatians (orig. animated version)
Roger writes & publishes the song "Cruella deVille" during the movie, which by the end of the movie has made Roger & Anita "more money than we ever dreamed of," and they plan to keep all the 101 puppies on a big place in the country.
Realistic?
That he could've made the $$ in the few short months the story takes place? And not get sued by Cruella for the song's content?

(You may have noticed that in the live-action remake, they made Roger a computer-game programmer. I was sad he was no longer a musician.)


About a Boy
Okay, this one's a little less obvious, because the songwriter isn't actually IN the movie--his heir is. But I'm counting it. The main character basically lives his life doing "nothing," kicking around and buying whatever he wants, because his father wrote a FAMOUS Christmas tune. Everyone who learns about it sings it back to him.
Realistic?
Could his dad have made AND passed on that much of an inheritance to his son, based on ONE hit song (and a seasonal song at that)?

OK, I'm handing this over to you. I know "Music & Lyrics" is out there, but I haven't seen it yet to comment. Sub has a few cuts on "Pope Dreams" going to DVD which has songwriting playing a role in the script, but I haven't seen it yet either.

Can anyone think of more?

Linda

EDIT: 3-05-07, Here's the updated list so far:

101 Dalmatians (orig. animated version)
About a Boy
Music & Lyrics
Pope Dreams
Tender Mercies
That Thing You Do
Eddie and the Cruisers
Honky-Tonk Man (true story? or fiction?)
A Star is Born
Holiday Inn
Amos & Andy, "Kingfish" episode (radio)
Rockstar
Spinal Tap
Love Actually (one of the main characters is an aging rockstar)
Dream Girls
Almost Famous
Josie and The Pusscats
The Crow
Crossroads (not the Brittney Shears version - the one with Steve Vai and Ralph M.)
The Commitments
A Mighty Wind
Oh Brother Where Art Thou
Phantom of the Opera (in all its film incarnations)
Hearts of Fire
Mr. Holland's Opus
Coyote Ugly
10
Thing Called Love
Grace of My Heart
Broken Bridges
One-Trick Pony
Moulin Rouge
Sons of Provo
Bye Bye Birdie
Baja Oklahoma
Honeysuckle Rose
Every Which Way But Loose
Rhinestone
Songwriter
The Idolmaker
Ishtar

Linda, "Tender Mercies" with Robert Duvall is a film about an ex-singer songwriter I think. It's a great film and one I should see again. I bet Netflix has it

Oh, you're right. That is one of my mom's FAVORITE movies (and favorite actors). It's been years since I saw it all the way through. Good one! Thanks, Steve!
Linda

THAT THING YOU DO, the Tom Hanks film about a Beatles-like pop band, had one of the musicians as the writer of the group's hit song. In actuality, if I remember correctly, Hanks co-wrote a couple of the songs himself.

Freddie And The Cruisers.
Them blokes just about came to life.
Twice.
Graham

Honky-Tonk man with Clint Eastwood.Marty Robbins made his last appearence in that movie.

Hey Linda,
I heard somewhere that "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" makes it's writer a hundred grand a year. I don't know if it's true but I imagine you could have lived quite nicely off of "White Christmas" over the years.
Rick

Been a long time since I've seen it but I think the Streisand character in "A Star is Born" wrote her own songs...

The Kristofferson character definitely did, providing an example of the reverse

Scott

Now that y'mention it, didn't Bing Crosby play a fictional songwriter in "Holiday inn"? (I think that's where the song "White Christmas" had its debut.) If I recall right, he and Danny Kaye were just barely making a living (post-WWII), writing, arranging, and putting on shows. May have been a lot more realistic portrayal of the business as it really works.

Joe
www.soundclick.com/bands/7/joewrabek_music.htm
www.myspace.com/joewrabek
The Writer's Blog: http://nakedspacehamsters.blogspot.com

Linda, This is a coincidence. I like to listen to old time radio shows. Last night I was listening to an episode of "Amos and Andy" from 1944. In this episode Andy and the "Kingfish" decide they are going to get rich by writing songs. Andy had a melody in his head not knowing that he heard it subconciously on the radio, so he and Kingfish wrote some words to it. To their surprise they heard Kai Kaiser and his orchestra playing their song on the radio with slightly different lyrics. They went to the radio station with Kingfish pretending to be a lawyer to sue Kai Kaiser for $10,000. After Kai Kaiser introduced them to the songwriters and gave them a lesson on copyright and ASCAP Andy offered him 5 dollars to forget the whole thing. It was hilarious.

Actually Graham that's Eddie and The Cruisers. There was a part 1 and part 2. They are fun, and yeah they do seem pretty real. Several of my favs are already mentioned. Here's some that aren't:

Rockstar
Spinal Tap (how did anyone forget this?)
Love Actually (one of the main characters is an aging rockstar)
Dream Girls
Almost Famous
Josie and The Pusscats
Buddy Holly (actually a bio-pic)
La Bamba (actually a bio-pic)
The Crow
Crossroads (not the Brittney Shears version - the one with Steve Vai and Ralph M.)

That's about all I can think of at the moment. If I can think of more, I'll update my list.

Jody

The Commitments - there's nothing like an R&B band from Ireland.

Hey Jody - I think all the bluesy stuff from Crossroads (that wasn't Steve Vai playing) was Ry Cooder. I think Ry even trained Ralph Macchio so he would "look like" he was really playing.
Not sure if this is accurate or not, but I think it's a cool pairing of Steve Via and Ry cooder.

"Oh Brother Where Art Thou" with George Clooney and co. playing "The Soggy Bottom Boys"
I saw a movie in the mid 70's called "The Phantom Of The Paradise", a rock and roll version of "Phantom Of The Opera". Paul Williams wrote the music and I think he played the phantom. Awful movie(sorry Paul)

Some of theses movies are about singers, but not about fictional songwriters.

And then there's "A Mighty Wind" - along the same lines as Spinal Tap, but Folk-oriented, and not as funny.

Yeah, "ea a oe's"

Actually parts of Ralph's stuff was Ry Cooder, some of it was Steve Vai. The bluesy stuff was Ry, the classical stuff and the major showdown at the end with the Paganini caprice piece was all Steve, both parts.

Damn, how could I have forgotten to list A Mighty Wind?!?

Jody

I agree that Mighty Wind was not as funny as Spinal Tap. But it DID have its moments.

That part where the one group was talking about how they had to go to a lower quality label that made them drill their own holes in their record albums was priceless

There was a movie in the late 80's called "Hearts of Fire" about a young woman trying to make it as a singer. Can't remember if she was a writer too. Memorable because her mentor was played by Bob Dylan.

Scott

Wow, I take a nap for a while and you guys blow the lid off this topic! Thank you so much!

I can't believe I didn't think of Spinal Tap myself, OR Phantom of the Opera. DUH! And I loved LaBamba too... part of it was shot in my hometown Hollister, CA if I remember right (the apricot drying scenes). But Ricky Valenz was real.

And *I* forgot the one that hurts me the most to watch, "Mr. Holland's Opus." (Oh! Yeah! Life is SO what happens when we're making other plans.... thank you, dear Mr. Lennon, for pointing that out... but I *don't* want to be Mr. Holland! He missed out on his family in pursuit of his music--then he almost missed the music too... ouch, ouch, ouch)

Scott's back to himself today, avatar-wise, I see!

So far we have:

101 Dalmatians (orig. animated version)
About a Boy
Music & Lyrics
Pope Dreams
Tender Mercies
That Thing You Do
Eddie and the Cruisers
Honky-Tonk Man (true story? or fiction?)
A Star is Born
Holiday Inn
Amos & Andy, "Kingfish" episode (radio)
Rockstar
Spinal Tap
Love Actually (one of the main characters is an aging rockstar)
Dream Girls
Almost Famous
Josie and The Pusscats
The Crow
Crossroads (not the Brittney Shears version - the one with Steve Vai and Ralph M.)
The Commitments
A Mighty Wind
Oh Brother Where Art Thou
Phantom of the Opera (in all its film incarnations)
Hearts of Fire
Mr. Holland's Opus
Coyote Ugly
10
Thing Called Love
Grace of My Heart
Broken Bridges
One-Trick Pony
Moulin Rouge
Sons of Provo
Bye Bye Birdie



Now, I haven't seen all these personally (yet), so if anyone knows which of these are "just" about singers (sorry, singers! but my question was songwriters) I'll take them off the list. Also--in which of these films was the group/songwriter successful with a big hit? I've [b]BOLDED[\b] the titles I know. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me. It's been a *while* since I've seen some of these!

Thanks everyone, for a little fun today! I'll definitely have to see "A Mighty Wind." Drilling their own holes in the records... that DOES sound priceless!! (What would the CD equivalent be? Same thing?)

Linda

Linda, since you've seen "101 Dalmatians," you know Roger was successful with his song about Cruella deVil. In "O Brother, Where Art Thou," the Soggy Bottom Boys get a hit, too, but it is a traditional song--not one that one of 'em wrote. (The black kid sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play guitar, and everybody's pretty much agreed it was a good deal.)

In both "Josie and the Pussycats" and "That Thing You Do!" it's not so much that the band writes good songs, but that they're manipulated into success by the respective Big Cheeses. Not sure that's the role model you're after.

Joe
www.soundclick.com/bands/7/joewrabek_music.htm
www.myspace.com/joewrabek
The Writer's Blog: http://nakedspacehamsters.blogspot.com

OK I think I have a GREAT one....How did you all miss????....

10!!!! Dudley Moore played a songwriter named George in one of the funniest movies of all time!!!...One that even had a moral to the story!!! Remember, he was watching the naked pool party and he fell down the side of the mountain after the trip to the dentist ...huh, huh....I am laughing again just thinking about it!!

Herbie

I can't believe no one has mentioned the one that comes to my mind first when I think of songwriting movies.
Thing Called Love
(or maybe it's AThing Called Love

It's set in Nashville... a lot of it at the Bluebird. Shortly after watching the movie I met Barbara Cloyd who runs the open mic that the folks in the movie perform at. Was surprising how close they came to the actual events. Some differences, of course.. but not near as many as I expected.

There's one other I think of... that hasn't been mentioned... (had to go look it up) Grace of My Heart. The main character in that was a Carol King sort. Might even have been losely based on her. Follows this gal's rise from writing in New York for girl groups... up through her eventual solo act.

Thank you, Joe, Herbie and Harriet!

Joe--I'm not sure I'm looking for role models so much as, has there ever been an accurate but fictional portrayal of songwriting success on film? Actually I started it just because. Not much more to it than that!

Linda

I believe "Honky-Tonk Man" fits the mold. The story is set in the 30's. Red Scoville played by Clint Eastwood travels from Oklahoma to Nashville with his nephew played by Clint's son to audition for the Grand Ole Opry. The problem is that he has tuberculosis and doesn't have long to live. The Opry turns him down because he can't finish a song without coughing. A record producer hears him and wants to record all 60 of the songs he has written before it's too late. He goes through hours of recording sessions so they can piece together the songs. The last song he records is a ballad called "Honky-Tonk Man". He is unable to finish the last verse so a studio musician played by Marty Robbins takes the mike and finishes the vocals for him. Red Soville soon passes away and the song is played on the radio after his death. What is ironicly sad about this is that Marty Robbins really died around the time the movie was released.

Wasn't the lead girl in "Coyote Ugly" a songwriter? Made it in the end of the movie?

Wasn't the lead girl in "Coyote Ugly" a songwriter? Made it in the end of the movie?

anyone mention 'coyote ugly'? it's a movie about (among other things) a songwritng gal who's afraid to perform in front of an audience.
fun thread, btw.

erf

http://erfmann.googlepages.com

haha bill, ya beat me to it....lol.
so 2 of us saw that movie, anyway.


http://erfmann.googlepages.com

Oh--true--I forgot Coyote Ugly had a plot.
Updating the list (above).

Linda

Thank you, Ben W!
So Honky-Tonk Man is a true story then?

Linda

Honky-tonk man is fiction. Clink Eastwood wrote the screenplay and all of the songs. Along with Marty Robbins, Ray Price and Johnny Gimble made cameos.

Gotta run but has anyone mentioned Toby Kieth's "Broken Bridges"? At least I think that's the title.

Anybody mention:
One-Trick Pony (w/ Paul Simon)
?

Then there's Moulin Rouge - the writer, was really a story writer, but he did write a "secret song" that became the big grand finale hit of the show.

His "success" was measured in truth, beauty and above all, LOVE.
I would have settled on money.

I liked the bizarro world of Moulin Rouge.. = )

Me too, Brian!


I forgot one other spinoff on Spinal Tap, Sons of Provo. About a boy band trying to "make it" in basically the family reunion circuit. heh.

Would you believe it, I walked past "A Mighty Wind" today at a clearance store I hardly ever go to, for a whole $2. Watched it. It was worth... about $2. LOL. I wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for this thread!

Fate. Weird stuff.

Linda

Moulin Rouge is one of my favorite films - I love all of the color, visuals, and "song references" - especially Roxanne.

I got to sing the secret song "Come What May" in a wedding service recently. They gave me complete freedom to choose any song I wanted, and that one seemed so appropriate.
And thanks to Moulin Rouge, I discovered Absinthe. :-)

I don't see any green fairy though, but you do get a MAJOR buzz. No wonder it was Van Gogh's choice of drink.

What about Bye Bye Birdie? Dick Van Dyke (Albert) is the songwriter (who really is a chemist wannabe) almost makes it w/the hit Conrad Birdie sings "One Last Kiss" (which by the way is catchy). Conrad sings it on the Ed Sullivan show but gets punched by a jealous beau Hugo (Bobbie Rydell) since Conrad is getting ready to kiss Kim (Ann Margaret) but is stopped short. Dick Van Dyke doesn't quite make it but he gets the girl in the end "Rosie" (Janet Leigh) if that counts as making it. heh-heh

Love that song (talk about simple lyrics)

Oh one last kiss,
Oh baby one last kiss,
It never felt like this,
Oh baby not like this,
You know I need your love,
Oh ut-ut Oh,
Just give me on last kiss.
Yeah one last kiss.

Thank you, Lynne! Bye Bye Birdie goes on the list.

Tom,
Absinthe is a REAL drink??
It looked frightening enough in the movie.
I love Moulin Rouge too--and the song you chose.

Thanks for stopping by again!

Linda

One more for the list is "Baja Oklahoma" where Leslie Ann Warren plays a struggling songwriter. The movie features Willie Nelson, Billy Vera, John Mayall, and Emmylou Harris. Definitely worth renting!

I also want to mention "Honeysuckle Rose" but I can't tell if it's fictional or based on Willie Nelson's life.
Either way, it didn't seem like much of an acting challenge for Willie.

Kevin, I'll add it. Thank you!
Tom, I'll add "Honeysuckle Rose" too, and if someone wants to complain, they may do so.

Linda

Tom--Moulin Rouge question again-- is "Come What May" an original for the movie or a cover? If it's a cover, whose is it?

Thanks! My daughter wants to know.

Linda

PS Also wondering if it's really smart to drink the same stuff Van Gogh was drinkin'... LOL

Tom, I will watch Willy Nelson sing and play guitar till the cows come home but don't expect me to watch him act in a movie. He has to be the worst actor since Glen Campbell tried it.Those guys are good pickers but just keep them out of the movies. Ben

I’ve copied the second list from 2-28 and put in alphabetical order below. Just makes it easier to read...at least for me.

I’m glad somebody mentioned “10" starring Bo Derek and Dudley Moore. That was an influential
movie with a message to me. I know that sounds funny but there was a message in that movie.
Socially redeeming, know what I mean?

Back in the early 80s, there was a song called “The Idolmaker.” I’ve never seen it on TV and I don’t
know if you can buy it but it is one movie I’d buy (and I don’t buy movies). This movie was based in
the 50s or 60s and was about a songwriter who couldn’t sing well enough to record. It was actually a
bio-pic so it may not fit the question. It was the story of Bob Marucci, who discovered great singers
like Frankie Avalon and Fabian. In the movie, he would set up these singers in careers and they would
do great but eventually would self-destruct. As I recall, the last scene showed the
writer/producer/manager in a lounge singing his own songs. I thought it was great.

In the movie “Pure Country” a guy named George Strait played a songwriter-singer.

Two legends named Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson did a movie in the 80s called “Songwriter.”

Dolly and Stallone did “Rhinestone” but I’m not sure anyone played a writer. It was inspired by
“Rhinestone Cowboy” though.

And in the Eastwood movie, “Every Which Way But Loose,” wasn’t that girl “Echo” a songwriter?





101 Dalmatians (orig. animated version)
10
A Mighty Wind
A Star is Born
About a Boy
Almost Famous
Amos & Andy, "Kingfish" episode (radio)
Baja Oklahoma
Broken Bridges
Bye Bye Birdie
Coyote Ugly
Crossroads (not the Brittney Shears version - the one with Steve Vai and Ralph M.)
Dream Girls
Eddie and the Cruisers
Grace of My Heart
Hearts of Fire
Holiday Inn
Honeysuckle Rose
Honky-Tonk Man (true story? or fiction?)
Josie and The Pusscats
Love Actually (one of the main characters is an aging rockstar)
Moulin Rouge
Mr. Holland's Opus
Music & Lyrics
Oh Brother Where Art Thou
One-Trick Pony
Phantom of the Opera (in all its film incarnations)
Pope Dreams
Rockstar
Sons of Provo
Spinal Tap
Tender Mercies
That Thing You Do
The Commitments
The Crow
Thing Called Love

Hi Linda,
The song "Come What May" was written for the movie by David Baerwald. It was sung and recorded by the actors (Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman) and they did a fine job.

Hi eb,
Wow! Thanks for doing that!
Feel free to edit your post and alphabetize your additions to the list in there. I'll add them up at the top.
Great thinking!
Linda


Tom,

Hello, and thank you for coming up with that info! My daughter will be happy!
It was one of the most beautiful songs in the film, too.

Linda

Ishtar with Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty as two knucklehead songwriters.

Oh my goodness!
My memory of Ishtar is blocked, I think...
Thanks for the addition, Truman!
Linda