Katey Sagal has a nice set of, um, pipes
Kevin Spacey. Didn’t write any songs AFAIK, but sings in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, as well as doing all in the vocals in his Bobby Darin biopic.
Tracy had the hit, but the song was written by the late, great Kirsty MacColl. When we saw Kirsty at Chicago’s Double Door, she introduced the song by shouting “GOD BLESS TRACY ULLMAN!!”
Hit records are nice. Songwriting royalties from someone else having a hit with the song are even better. And having that song become the theme song to a hit TV series? Priceless. Tracy pretty much paid for the rest of Kirsty’s tragically abbreviated musical career.
Dick Powell started as as signer and then went on to lots of acting and some directing.
Soap opera star Jack Wagner had a hit called “All I Need” a few decades ago.
Gwyneth Paltrow did a great version of “Cruisin” with Huey Lewis.
Chuck Barris, creator of such high-brow shows as The Dating Game and The Gong Show (which he also famously hosted), wrote the 1962 Freddy Cannon hit “Palisades Park”.
Sci-fi author Michael Moorcock has been involved with music for almost 50 years now, writing songs with Hawkwind and Blue Öyster Cult, among others, and also releasing albums with his own band, Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix.
No one is really sure about all this, but a man who may or may not be a stock broker named Sterling Smith has released over 60 albums (and performing recently too) as Jandek.
I have a vinyl album called “Golden Throats” (Rhino records-1988) that has on it (I kid you not):
It Ain’t Me Babe–Sebastian Cabot
Blowin’ In The Wind–Eddie Albert
Try A Little Tenderness–Jack Webb
Twist And Shout–Mae West
House Of The Rising Sun–Andy Griffith
And others too horrible to mention by Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Noel Harrison, Joel Grey, Jim Nabors and Frankie Randall (whoever the hell he is).
Thanks a lot for making me remember all this. I gotta go lie down.
I forgot she had a show, but I remember the song.
< James Bond >
Who’s strangling the cat?
< /James Bond >
Harris was also King Arthur in the movie version of Camelot. I saw him on stage in that role in Boston ca. 1980.
And of course Richard Burton was Arthur in the original Broadway cast of Camelot.
Henry VIII, famous for other things, was also a composer of note.
Yeah, if you were around at the time, you damn well better love his music!
Louis Farrakhan (of Nation of Islam fame) used to sing calypso.
The late Brittany Murphy - most people will remember her as Luanne in King of the Hill, but she had a few movie roles, too - had a fantastic singing voice. She sang a couple of songs in the movie Happy Feet, “Somebody To Love” and “Boogie Wonderland”.
I’d have to look for actual songs but I know that author Anthony Burgess did some composing (including two, I think, songs for his stage-play of A Clockwork Orange) as well as Anthony Hopkins (a scene in HANNIBAL of him playing piano is his own work).
OK, the beginning & the end of this radio drama of Burgess’ ACO has the songs-
Hopkins’ “And the Waltz Goes On”
Oh! And the song stylings of Sgt. Howie, Callan, The Equalizer- Edward Woodward- doing a little-known song by Elton John
And latter-day God of Metal- Sir Christopher Lee!
Did I miss it or has anyone mentioned Billy Bob Thornton, Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix?
I skimmed the thread and didn’t see Patrick Swazye.
Governor Jimmie Davis claimed that tune. However, he didn’t write it, either–he bought the rights. Davis also purchased the rights to “It Makes No Difference Now” from Texan Floyd Tillman–who got them back, eventually.
However, Jimmie Davis was a professional musician who knew good tunes & sang almost to the end of his very long life…