The thread about a quote from the immortal Road House (1989) made me recollect that The Jeff Healey Band performs as the house band (I believe it’s unnamed, but it’s definitely not named The Jeff Healey Band) in the titular establishment. Can’t believe I just thought of that.
Amusingly, years later, Des Barres appeared in the sequel series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, as a DJ.
I don’t know if Cotton appeared but The Plimsouls are shown playing "A Million Miles Away"in a bar. They are credited as themselves, though.
I had to wiki it - re: Valley Girl, “Josie Cotton and her group drove up from Texas in their 1950 Chevrolet to perform in the prom scene.”
In the Kill Bill movies, The 5, 6, 7, 8’s played The 5 6 7 8’s. Punctuation is the key here.
Spinal Tap portrayed The Folksmen in A Mighty Wind. There are nuanced degrees of how fictional those two bands are, since one of them actually toured and released an album.
Both Letters to Cleo and Save Ferris appeared as unnamed bands in '10 Things I Hate About You"
The Folksmen made numerous live appearanxes, including opening for Spinal.Tap on some shows.
Neither can **Poysyn **or **Loach **–
The band Otis Day and the Knights in Animal House was put together by Robert Cray who is playing bass, with DeWayne Jessie playing Otis Day on screen but actually lip sinking to the recording of Lloyd Williams. After the success of the movie, Jessie apparently changed his name to Otis Day and has recorded and toured as Otis Day and the Knights.
Both Albert Collins and Southside Johnny Lyon front anonymous bands in “Adventures is Babysitting.”
Frankie Goes to Hollywood perform in the Brian De Palma film Body Double. The group used a clip of that scene as a music video for the song “Relax.”
Fine Young Cannibals were a bar band in “Tin Men.”
Although not a band, José Feliciano appears in Fargo as a lounge musician.
That’s a good one. I’ve always liked that movie but I didn’t think of that scene.
Holly Johnson, singer for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, is credited on IMDb as “Singing Nightclub Doorman.” I got that FGTH album when I was in high school. I still have it somewhere.
Also not a band and not really a movie…
Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard recorded Pancho and Lefty, which was written by Townes Van Zandt. Van Zandt appears in the video they made, but he doesn’t sing.
Not quite on topic but Gillian Welch has a cameo in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? as a record-buying customer. Her character doesn’t sing, but she is heard singing in songs in other scenes.
Cannibal corpse plays their song “Hammer smashed face” in Ace Ventura pet detective
George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic appeared as themselves in the classic film P.C.U.
(Yes, I know it does not meet the criteria set forth in the OP, but I can’t pass up the opportunity to mention the film.)
i’ve actually been working on this very topic, producing some compilations dvd’s featuring the (typically brief!) appearances by bands in movies - mainly focusing on 60’s/70’s psychedelia and hard rock. Here are the more known bands featured on the first 4 volumes (my apologies if some have already been mentioned)
1957
Mister Rock and Roll (USA) featuring
- Chuck Berry
- Little Richard
1964
The Vagrants (Leslie West) “Oh, Those Eyes” in Disk-O-Tek Holiday
A Band Of Angels “Hide & Seek” in Disk-O-Tek.Holiday
Get Yourself A College Girl (UK) featuring
- Dave Clark Five “Whenever You’re Around”
- The Animals “Blue Feeling”
- Jimmy Smith And His Trio “Johnny Come On Home”
- Dave Clark Five “Thinking of You”
- The Animals “Round And Round”
1965
Beach Boys “The Girls on the Beach” & “Little Honda” in Girls On The Beach (USA)
Beach Boys with Annette Funicello in The Monkey’s Uncle, USA
Herman’s Hermits “Listen People” in When The Boys Meet The Girls (US)
James Brown “I Got You” in Ski Party 1965
Beau Brummels in Villiage Of The Giants
Graham Bond Organisation in Gonks Go Beat
The Zombies in Bunny Lake Is Missing
Los Sinners “Rebelde Radioactivo” in Simon of the Desert
1966
The Animals “We Gotta Get Outta This Place” in It’s A Bikini World
Herman’s Hermits “Got A Feeling” in Hold On (UK)
Fugs “I Couldn’t Get High” in Chappaqua
Ravi Shankar in Chappaqua
The Yardbirds in BlowUp
The Ghost Goes Gear (UK) featuring
- Spencer Davis Group “When I Come Home”
- St. Louis Union “I Got My Pride”
- Spencer Davis Group “Midnight Special”
- The M6 “Seven Deadly Sins”
- Spencer Davis Group “Stevie’s Groove”
- St. Louis Union “Show Me Your English Teeth”
1967
Gram Parson’s International Submarine Band (with Electric Flag audio) in The Trip, USA
Riot On The Sunset Strip featuring:
- The Standells
- Chocolate Watchband
The Love-Ins (US) featuring
- The New Age Group
- The Chocolate Watchband
Roy Orbinson in The Fastest Guitar Alive (US)
Clear Light in The President’s Analyst
Lee Grant & The Capitols in The Sorcerers
Manfred Mann in Venus in Furs
Paul Jones from Manfred Mann in Privledge
The Birds in The Deadly Bees
The Mindbenders in To Sir With Love
Los Bravos in Los Chicos Con Las Chicas
Los Dug Dug’s (& singers) in The Crazy World Of The Young (El Mundo Loco de los Jovenes), Mexico
Elipse “Lets Build/The Climbing Brigade” (Idemo Gradimo/Dizemo Brigade) in The Rats Woke Up (Budenje Pacova) (Yugoslavia) 1967
1968
Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band “Jigsaw” & “Bullets La Verne” in Jigsaw (USA)
The Bit’ A Sweet “LSD’s Got A Hold On Me”, “Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind” & “Is It On, Is It Off?” in Blonde On a Bum Trip (USA)
Elipse in The Naughty Ones (Nemirni) (Yugoslavia)
Grand Funk Railroad “Into The Sun” in Mondo Daytona/Get Down Grand Funk, USA
Herman’s Hermits in Mrs Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter (US)
Arthur Brown in The Committee
Katch 22 in Baby Love
Grateful Dead “Viola Lee Blues” in Petulia
The Fool in Wonderwall (UK)
Country Joe “Fixing To Die Rag” in Revolution '68
Quicksilver Messenger Service “Codine” in Revolution '68
The Seeds in Psych Out
Strawberry Alarm Clock in Psych Out
The Spencer Davis Group in Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush
Moby Grape “Sweet Ride” aka “Never Again” in Sweet Ride
Big Brother & The Holding Co. in Petulia
1969
Freedom (Ray Royer and Bobby Harrison ex-Procol Harum) “The Games Is Over” in Attraction (Nerosubianco), Italy
Mutantes in As Amorosas (The Loving Women)
Can with Margareta Juvan (as The Inner Space) “I’m Hiding My Nightingale” in Kobi Jaeger’s Kamasutra: Vollendung der liebe
Pretty Things in What’s Good For The Goose
Spirit in The Model Shop
The Comfortable Chair in How To Commit Marriage
The Litter in Medium Cool
The Cyrkle in The Mynx (US)
1970
The Incredible String Band “Three Is A Green Crown”, “The Iron Stone” & “All Writ Down” in Be Glad For The Song Has No Ending (UK)
Permissive featuring
- Titus Groan
- Comus
- Forever More
Groupies (US) featuring
- Ten Years After “Help Me Baby”
- Spooky Tooth featuring Luther Grovesnor Fillmore Rehearsal
- Terry Reid with Keith Webb and Peter Shelly “Bang Bang” & “Superlungs”
- Ten Years After “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”
- Dry Creek Road “Mister Sun”
- Joe Cocker & The Grease Band “Delta Lady”
Amen Corner in Scream and Scream Again
Alice Cooper “Ride With Me” in Diary Of A Mad Housewife
Strawberry Alarm Clock in Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
Pacific Gas & Electric in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
Kaleidoscope “Lie To Me” in Captain Milkshake
Big Grunt (post-Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) in Marty Amok (UK)
Lee Hazlewood “Strangers, Lovers, Friends”, “Let’s Take A Walk Down Valhallavägen” in Requiem for an Almost Lady, Sweden
1971
Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show “Bunky and Lucille” in Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me (USA)
Coultry Joe and The Fish “World That We All Dreamed Of” in Gas-S-S-S
Tim Buckley “Pleasant Stree” in The Christian Licorice Store
Canned Heat “One Kind Favor” in Naked Zoo
Zachariah featuring
- James Gang
- Country Joe & The Fish
- James Gang vs. Elvin Jones
- New York Rock n Roll Ensemble
Thunderclap Newman in Not Tonight Darling
Juicy Lucy in Bread (UK)
Crazy Mabel in Bread (UK)
Cartano Veloso in The Demiurg (Brazil) (Filmed in London)
Kin Ping Meh in Ready, Willing & Able (Germany)
Medicine Ball Caravan (US) featuring
- B.B. King
- Doug Kershaw
- Sal Valentino
- Alice Cooper “Black Juju”
- Stoneground
1972
Curtis Mayfield “SuperFly” in SuperFly (USA)
Sir Douglas Quintet in Cisco Pike
Stoneground in Dracula 1972 A.D.
Roy Harper in Made (UK)
The Strawbs “Hey Little Man (Thursday’s Child)” & “Tomorrow” in Grave New World, UK
1973
Medura in Electra Glide in Blue
Magma in Me, I Want to Have Dough (Moi y’en a vouloir des sous) (France)
1975
Showaddywaddy “The Party” in Three For All (UK)
1978
Sorcery in Stunt Rock (Australia)
1979
Country Joe And The Fish “Fixin’ To Die Rag” in More American Graffiti (USA)
Ramones in Rock n Roll High School
1980
Pretty Things in Monster Club
1983
Lou Reed “My Baby Sister” in Get Crazy (USA)
1984
Alice Cooper in Monster Dog (USA)
(i do have the video for every one of these clips, in case someone *needs *to see one :p)