In Rio Bravo, there’s a point in the movie where Dean Martin gets to sing. Same for Ricky Nelson in Wackiest Ship in the Army. The songs have nothing to do with the story, they’re just scenes to provide the singers an opportunity to sing.
Are there other movies with songs inserted just because? Is it because the singer’s agent puts it in the contract? Does anyone do this any more or was it a short-lived gimmick?
I think we need to pin this down a bit more. Like, none of the songs in Jailhouse Rock have anything to do with any story, and are just there to provide Elvis an opportunity to sing… but then, that’s the purpose of the entire movie (including whatever rudimentary plot it has).
Other way around, I would imagine. When a director casts a famous singer in a movie, it’s because the director wants them to sing.
I think the point is more about movies that might not have had songs, but got one because the lead is a singer. Songs inserted because they cast someone who can sing.
Like this?
Which is true of every Elvis movie. They’re all essentially quasi-musicals where some plot or dialog occasionally breaks out.
ISTM the OP is asking for something less overt or complete than that. An ordinary drama with one song bolted on for a reason that the plot doesn’t really support. So fan service in a sense.
Does Tom Cruise in the original Top Gun singing You’ve lost that loving feeling to Kelly McGillis count? Does all the fliers singing Great Balls of Fire while Goose plays the piano count?
In this case the plot sorta supports it because Maverick is fearless in pursuit of wimmin, and groups of guys been singing drunk in bars since before pianos were invented. But the movie would certainly have worked fine if those scenes never existed.
My theory: movie studios used to make more musicals, so there was more opportunity for a singer to evolve from acting in musicals, to acting in comedies with one or two songs, to acting in non-singing roles.
First thing I thought of!
Bette Midler singing “I Put A Spell On You” in Hocus Pocus.
Got it in one. There was no reason for Dean Martin’s character to serenade the others. It wasn’t so jarring as to pull you out of the movie, but it was unnecessary to the story.
I’m not sure the singing in Top Gun is all that out of place - in my Navy days, people often burst into song when beer was involved.
The Three Amigos features three original songs, sung by the cast; first is the theme song at the very beginning, but the other two are not necessarily essential to the plot in any significant way.
The studio wasn’t sure whether Lauren Bacall was going to be a singer, so they inserted songs in To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep. You could argue that you don’t cast the piano player in To Have and Have Not and omit some sort of performance, but other performance is just stuck into a scene.
To Have and Have Not
The Big Sleep
Digital Underground show up in Nothing But Trouble for no real reason other than to perform a song for the grotesque Judge Valkenheiser.
Right- that’s how I interpreted the OP as well.
One comes to mind- in Memphis Belle, there’s a pretty contrived scene where Harry Connick Jr. ends up singing some period song to the crowd during some sort of party prior to their final mission. It was very clearly in there specifically as an opportunity for him to sing, and considering the time frame of the movie’s release, was probably a marketing point for the movie.
Here’s a clip. And for you Expanse fans, there’s a considerably younger, almost unrecognizable David Strathairn (Klaes Ashford) at 1:56.
Madonna is in A League of Their Own. They could have forced a song in there. Instead it was Marla Hooch.
Verka Serduchka turns up in Spy for no reason other than to do part of a song and to be background for a bit of comedy business.
I would argue that Marla’s song was, in fact, an essential plot element.
Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s singing “Moon River”. It’s a nice song and cute moment in the film but the studio execs thought it unnecessary and wanted it cut. Hepburn refused and the song won an Oscar.
I remember reading that Moon River was written to suit Audrey Hepburn’s limited range.
James Brown and The Fabulous Flames show up in Ski Party as the ski patrol looking to refill their St. Bernards’ rescue casks. After being recognized by Yvonne Craig they break out into a performance of “I Feel Good”.