Throwing back to the week of November 15, 1955, we find a couple of usual suspects atop the Billboard singles chart followed by Tennessee Ernie Jones at #3 with ‘Sixteen Tons.’ The song would ascend to #1 the following week and spend two months there.
This song was written and recorded by country singer Merle Travis a decade earlier. It is sung from the perspective of an Appalachian coal miner.
My final fictional artist is a band so renowned that it’s replacing Aerosmith as the musical accompaniment to Disney World’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem made their debut on the pilot episode of The Muppet Show and found big-screen fame performing ‘Can You Picture That?’ in 1979’s The Muppet Movie. The sextet is fronted by Dr. Teeth on keyboard and vocals, with Floyd Pepper on bass, Janice on lead guitar, Zoot on saxophone, Lips on trumpet, and — of course — Animal on drums.
Almost Famous (2000) is a music movie that gets the music right. How could it not when writer/director Cameron Crowe spent his adolescence touring with rock bands and writing about them for Rolling Stone?
He channels those experiences into the story of William Miller, a young aspiring journalist who learns some hard lessons while hitting the road with Stillwater, a 70s band based on the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and others.
I’m intrigued by the idea of adapting a book about musicians to the big or small screen and having to write music that has only been described in words. The best recent example I have is the miniseries Daisy Jones & The Six.
The book of the same title, written by Taylor Jenkins Reid, tells the story of the struggles and successes of a 1970s band. The complicated relationship of the band’s leaders, played by Riley Keough and Sam Claflin in the series, was inspired by the romance of Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham during Fleetwood Mac’s heyday.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, released in 2007, probably should have ended all musical biopics. It’s a ruthless satire of then-recent hits Walk the Line and Ray that exposes every clich&e and tired trope of the genre.
And yet, Hollywood keeps churning them out. In just the past few years we’ve seen movies about Elvis, Bob Marley, Robbie Williams, Amy Winehouse, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen.
Meet Me In Montauk 