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Five Best Movies Named After Songs
Don’t worry, we didn’t include What a Girl Wants
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Todd Solondz’s new film Life During Wartime, which is currently playing at the IFC Center, is named after the Talking Heads’ song of the same name from the band’s third album, Fear of Music. Before we get to the list, we need to acknowledge Solondz for both choosing a great song and not cheating in his choice. In our rankings, we disqualified songs that were written for a movie, like Britney Spears’ “(You Drive Me) Crazy” and Drive Me Crazy; biopics named after songs, like Beyond the Sea; and Across the Universe. Just ‘cause.
Here are Encore‘s Five Best Movies Named After Songs
#5. Jumpin’ Jack Flash (by the Rolling Stones)
This Penny Marshall-directed film isn’t great by any measure of the word, but we give it credit for using the Stones’ classic in an interesting way: Whoopi Goldberg works in a bank and uses computers to communicate with clients worldwide. One day (don’t all action comedies need a “one day” transition?), she receives a coded message from an unknown source. To figure out the mysterious code, Whoopi must figure out the lyrics to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Remember how scary it was to get the correct lyrics to a song in the pre-Internet world? Me neither, but speaking of scary, check out this video of Whoopi dancing like Mick Jagger, while Aretha Franklin and Keith Richard egg on her.
#4. Sixteen Candles/Pretty in Pink (by the Crests/the Psychedelic Furs)
Sadly, there’s no song called “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”
#3. Stand by Me (by Ben E. King)
For some time now, I’ve been working on a post of songs we take for granted. For instance, “Born to Run.” It’s an amazing song, but we’ve heard it so many times now that it’s lost a bit of its power. Same with “Try a Little Tenderness,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Stand by Me.” The movie has become synonymous with the song, even though it’s based on a Stephen King novella with an entirely different name, “The Body.” It’s also a pretty good (and very different) Oasis song from the otherwise underwhelming, Be Here Now. See, even now I get distracted from Ben E. King’s masterpiece by Oasis. It deserves more respect!
#2. Blue Velvet (by Bobby Vinton)
In 1950, Bernie Wayne and Lee Morris wrote a song that has since been covered numerous times, including versions by Tony Bennett, the Clovers and, most notably, Bobby Vinton. Little did Wayne and Morris know that their little ditty about a woman wearing blue velvet would be used in a David Lynch film about a rapist who inhales amyl nitrite to get high.
#1. Can’t Hardly Wait (by the Replacements)
This film is to the ’90s what #5 were to the ’80s. Nearly everyone in the cast became stars (Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Seth Green, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jason Segal, Jamie Pressly, Freddy Rodriguez, Erik Palladino, Donald Faison, Selma Blair, Breckin Meyer, Jenna Elfman, Jerry O’Connell, Liv Tyler, Melissa Joan Hart and Josh Radnor all make appearances), and you know how 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon is always mentioning her imaginary boyfriend, Astronaut Mike Dexter? That came from Facinelli’s character in this movie. Also, “Can’t Hardly Wait” is a better closing song than the Thompson Twins’ “If You Were Here” at the end of Sixteen Candles. It’s also better than The Breakfast Club‘s “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” Yeah, I said it.
And if I ever decide to do Songs Based on Movies, #1 would be: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something