Famous people who also made songs

I was looking for a cite for this and found this SDMB thread from 2008. It appears that the number is in dispute (but still in the high thousands) and depends on what is considered a song.

Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce are both accomplished pianists.
Pierce performs duet with Emanuel Ax.

Albert Einstein was an accomplished violinist and once said that if he hadn’t been a physicist, he would’ve been a musician.

Benjamin Franklin was musically gifted and invented the glass armonica.

A couple of examples for the curious:

Lili’uokalani, the last Queen of Hawai’i, wrote many songs, the most famous of which is “Aloha 'Oe”, which is sort of the trademark song of Hawai’i.

Robert Mitchum co-wrote and sang the theme song for his movie “Thunder Road”; it spent 21 weeks in the lower reaches of the Billboard charts.

Sam Shepard was in the Holy Modal Rounders. (He played drums.)

Alan Arkin formed a folk group, The Tarriers, who had a hit with “The Banana Boat Song”. He also played on EdMcCurdy’s collection of risque Elizabethan songs, When Dalliance Was In Flower.

As far as ultra-famous people who were musicians on the side go,let’s not forget about President Truman’s daughter Margaret,who was a singer.She didn’t exactly make a career out of it,but I’m sure a lot of people here have heard of that angry letter that President Truman wrote to the journalist who gave a bad review of her singing in his newspaper.

Charles Manson

Meryl Streep is a good singer, and sang with the band Blue Rodeo at the end of the movie “Postcards From the Edge”. Pretty sure she sang many of the “Mama Mia” songs, also.

Former Louisiana governor Jackson Parish wrote “You Are My Sunshine”.

And then there are the regrettable tunes of John Ashcroft.

Good one. Chuck wrote “Cease To Exist”, which was “rewritten” as “Never Learn Not To Love” by Dennis Wilson for the Beach Boys 20-20 album. Dennis’ rewrite didn’t help much- still a mediocre song.

That same album included “I Can Hear Music”, co-written by Phil Spector; “Cotton Fields”, written by Leadbelly; and drumming by Jim Gordon. Making it perhaps the only album ever to have four convicted murderers (present and future) in the credits (although Manson’s name was somehow excluded).
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Lorne Greene had a #1 hit with “Ringo”.

Name a Blask all star NBA player of Gen X or later. He probably has arap album. Shaq, Kobe, [del]Artest[/del] Metta World Peace, Iverson, Tony Parker, Jason Kidd, Chris Webber.

Also NBA legend Wayman Tisdale is a bassist.

Jack Black was in the band Tenacious D, and he’s a very good singer. I had forgotten about that and when I saw the wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL Richard Linklater film Bernie the other day I was surprised at how good his voice was*. Later I remembered I had seen the Tenacious D movie, and my husband reminded me of his singing in High Fidelity.

  • it’s not a musical but there are a few times Black’s character sings in it. It will be one of my favorite movies of 2012, and I never thought I would have said that about a Jack Black movie.

Let’s not forget Jake and Elwood Blues (Belushi and Akroyd).

I’m not that familiar with her music, but actress Minnie Driver’s music has gotten good reviews and after listening to a few songs I can see why. She has a beautiful, distinctive voice. and an easy, breezy style.

“Beloved”
“Deeper Water”

Actor Richard Harris, best known to a generation as the first Dumbledore, had a major hit with McArthur’s Park.

Walter Brennan doing Old Rivers, but I don’t know if it counts - he doesn’t really sing it.

I can’t say that I knew that.Jason Kidd rapping?I’ll have to check those songs out.

Are you kidding me?

The Singing Senators, Trent Lott, John Ashcroft, Jim Jeffords, and (God help me) Larry Craig were a popular singing group on The Hill for a while. Only Ashcroft was (to my knowledge) a songwriter of that group but he did release a few albums.

Orrin Hatch, too, has had a second career as a songwriter. True story, swear to God.

Natalie Portman!

Bagdasarian also acted in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window

You just inspired me to read up on him. I didn’t know much about him beyond what I posted upthread, and I certainly didn’t know he’d acted in any films. Interesting guy.

Robert Downey Jr. put out an album a few years ago, using a vocal style that sounds almost entirely unlike his speaking voice; one of the songs is used as the end theme to “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”. Other people have occasionally gotten him to burst into song, and aside from being an incredible ham sometimes, he does quite well.

Peter Davison is an accomplished musician and has written some small things for TV, including a very twee little opening for a children’s show. He’s also the voice in the opening to the BBC adaptations of Margery Allingham’s Campion novels, in which he plays the lead. There was a large plot-related standing harp involved in one of the Doctor Who anniversary specials; he didn’t play harp at the time, but apparently letting him fool with it for a few minutes was all he needed to work it out.

David McCallum comes from a musical family, and got to do a duet on-air way back when Nancy Sinatra guest-starred on The Man From UNCLE. He put out at least one proper album, but it’s long out of print and I haven’t been able to find a copy, so I couldn’t tell you what it sounded like.

Dennis Waterman, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks, have a top 10 hit in the UK and Australia with the Minder theme song I Could Be So Good for You, and also sang the theme for New Tricks.