Ponderables #2

December 11th, 2004

Filed under: General

Driving to the mall with the Polite-Wife this morning, the song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” came on the radio. I flashed back to my teen years and remember watching the movie based on this song.

That got me to thinking (that can be dangerous): How many songs have been turned into movies? I’m not counting movies titled after songs (like Great Balls of Fire or La Bamba), but movies that are directly inspired or based on the song in question.

I can think of four off-hand:
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Alice’s Restaurant
The Nights the Lights Went Out in Georgia
Harper Valley P.T.A.
I guess Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – the Movie counts too, though I don’t recommend anyone ever watching it.

(I’m not counting TV movies like The Gambler. I didn’t count Detroit Rock City either because it falls into “movies titled after songs”, not movies based on songs. It maybe splitting hairs, but hey, it’s my site.)

I know there have to be another examples out there, help me ease by mind by naming them…

9 Responses to “ Ponderables #2 ”

  1. fred hembeck
    December 11th, 2004 at 7:55 pm

    Wasn’t there an “Ode To Billy Jo” with, I think, Robby Bemson? And besides a TV cartoon version of “Puff, the Magic Dragon”, that’s all I got–but there has to be more!?! (You’re not looking for stuff like Whoopi Goldberg as “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, right?)(…neither were movie audiences across America…)

    Fred

  2. Dorian
    December 11th, 2004 at 10:12 pm

    Not only do I own the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” soundtrack, I own the movie on DVD.
    I know, I should be ashamed of myself…

  3. Jim Kosmicki
    December 11th, 2004 at 11:00 pm

    Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (and Rudolph and Frosty and a whole slew of other Christmas shows for that matter) were definitely inspired by the songs. The whole point of those shows is to put a story around the famous song.

  4. David
    December 12th, 2004 at 3:12 am

    “Ode to Billy Joe” and “Rudolph” were the first ones I thought of. What on earth does that say about me?

  5. Bob
    December 12th, 2004 at 11:31 am

    I think “Singin’ in the Rain” was named after the song, or at least the credits seem to imply (something like “Suggested by the song by…”).

  6. Kevin Melrose
    December 12th, 2004 at 3:37 pm

    There’s also Sam Peckinpah’s “Convoy,” based on C.W. McCall’s song of the same name.

  7. Kevin Melrose
    December 12th, 2004 at 3:57 pm

    Oh! And while I’m thinking of old country songs: There was “Take This Job And Shove It,” based on the Johnny Paycheck song (with a cast that included Art Carney, Martin Mull, Eddie Albert, George Lindsey and Charlie Rich), at least two Willie Nelson Vehicles — “Red-Headed Stranger” and “Honeysuckle Rose” — and and Loretta Lynn’s autobiographical “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

    And don’t forget “Yellow Submarine.”

  8. Gordon
    December 12th, 2004 at 5:35 pm

    Does Yellow Submarine count? (Or, if you want to get especially obscure, the Dave Clark Five’s Having a Wild Weekend

  9. John
    December 13th, 2004 at 11:13 am

    Hmm. 9 to 5 and Earth Girls are Easy are the first two movies based on songs that spring to my mind (that you didn’t mention.)

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