# Movies where a singer sings - let me explain **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 8, 2025, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852 "2025-08-08T12:36:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/61 "2025-08-09T03:01:31Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > The first thing I thought of was the Marx Brothers movies. There’s plenty of the brothers singing and Chico’s piano playing and Harpo’s harp playing, but I don’t consider them to be true musicals. But there’s also always some crooner, usually depicted as someone who needs just one big break, singing an insipid love song. You know, the part that you fast-forward through. I don’t know who the crooners are, but I assume it’s some singer that the studio is hoping to promote as the next big star. I was thinking of the Marx Brothers. I don’t think it fits because the movies were film versions of their plays. Even though there was a plot they were still structured like a vaudeville review. The comedy had to be broken up with musical interludes. Some of the music was played for laughs but often it was played straight. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/62 "2025-08-09T03:02:57Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I saw _Austin Powers in Goldmember_ yesterday, and IIRC, the only song Beyonce sung was “Hey Goldmember”, which was both a parody song, and the introduction for the main villain. The song or her were not the focal points of that scene. I remember reading the Mad magazine parody of _True Grit_. There was a scene where Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) and Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) are talking about La Boeuf (Glen Campbell) being captured by the bandits. Mattie says they have to rescue him because if they don’t, neither of them will be able to sing the movie’s theme song. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/63 "2025-08-09T03:23:31Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > have the original cast recording of the Addams Family show on Broadway. When I saw it, Roger Rees and Brooke Shields were the leads. Brooke can actually sing pretty well. Bebe Neuwirth, who originally had the role…. well, she was on-key, but she does NOT have a pleasant singing voice. I have the original(I think) **Chicago** soundtrack on Spotify, and I was rather surprised how poor her singing is. She doesn’t appear to have much range, which is ok. But because she kind of just yells the parts where a high note should be, her strong accent comes through and all I can think of is Lilith (from Cheers) and she would never “rouge her knees and roll her stockings down”. Sorry, Bebe. I love you but singing isn’t your strong suit. > [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Another TV example: in an episode of _Mad Men_, Bert Cooper (played by former Broadway star Robert Morse) appears to Don from beyond the grave and breaks into a spontaneous song and dance number. I love this scene! The first example that came to my mind is one I brought up in our movie thread. The most recent **Joker** film, which has many issues, co-stars Lady GaGa. I said at the time “just because you snagged Lady GaGa for your movie, doesn’t mean she has to sing. As I recall, she’s a fairly good actress, as seen in **A Star is Born”.** No need to shoehorn in forgettable songs. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/64 "2025-08-09T07:34:03Z")
I’m guessing this isn’t in the spirit of the OP but had to put it here anyway as it comes out of nowhere. It’s just a big pisstake. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xLLsjlKWohU/hqdefault.jpg "Starsky & Hutch - Don't give up on us baby") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLLsjlKWohU) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/65 "2025-08-09T07:59:20Z")
It sometimes happened in the TV Series. https://www.youtube.com/embed/xV1PcXD1c80?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=RDxV1PcXD1c80 ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/66 "2025-08-09T08:06:11Z")
Kirk Douglas in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. https://www.youtube.com/embed/AkjTGCrLvAU?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=RDAkjTGCrLvAU ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/67 "2025-08-09T11:10:21Z")
The idea of sailors of yore entertaining one another with whatever skills they have, be it sleight-of-hand, juggling, singing, etc. is a LOT more real-world plausible than one police_man_ singing a romantic song to his partner police_man_ in his apartment. Ooooh; I never noticed that about **CHiPs**. Who knew?!?! Not I. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/68 "2025-08-09T14:17:42Z")
Irene Dunne was a classically trained singer who graduated from a conservatory before deciding to become an actress. So most of her movies have her character sing, and sometimes play piano as well. It’s usually worked into the plot: in _The Joy of Living_, her character is a professional singer, and a very popular one, who is making a lot of money at it while her family sponges off of her. She sings a couple of times because, why not? In _The Awful Truth_, Cary Grant is jealous of the time she is spending with another man, even though it’s none of his business, because they are in divorce proceedings. Anyway, it turns out he is her voice coach she is going to just because it’s something she always wanted to do. She gives a formal recital, which Grant crashes, and there’s some purpose to it, because it shows that she hasn’t been lying about seeing a voice coach for lessons. Some of the excuses for singing are a little more far-fetched-- she bonds with a future mother-in-law when they discover they both love singing around the piano. Sometimes they are perfectly natural-- she sings a lullaby to her child. But there is nearly always some singing. Judging it by modern standards is difficult, because singing didn’t record all that well in the 30s, when many of her movies were made. Her singing in movies doesn’t exactly blow you away-- but then, no singing in the 1930s does. The few films she made in the 40s with singing sound a lot better, and you get more of an idea of what she sounded like live. (The first innovation that improved sound since the introduction of sound-on-film in 1927 was the Academy Curve, first used in _The Wizard of Oz_ in 1938.) People going to films in the 30s were used to the quality of the sound, I guess, and could “translate” it in their heads to what someone really sounded like. I have heard recordings of Irene Dunne on records that were made in recording studios _for_ records, not for films, and they are probably much closer to what she sounded like live, and she really is very good. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/69 "2025-08-09T16:57:09Z")
I think that’s almost a parody of the phenomenon the OP describes- they chose a very distinctive pair whose sounds were iconic for the time period being celebrated and stuck them in just to perform that song. Kind of a sort of meta-joke of the 1960s practice of putting singers in movies just to perform their songs- like say… Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson in _Rio Bravo_. They were both singers, but clearly they stuck the “My rifle, my pony, and me” song in there specifically to showcase their singing. I feel like the Austin Powers people did that with Bacharach and Costello to poke gentle fun at that practice. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/70 "2025-08-09T19:10:09Z")
Not a movie but a radio drama: [Richard Diamond, Private Detective](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Diamond,_Private_Detective) > [@](#): > > Most episodes end with Diamond at the piano, singing a standard, popular song, or showtune from Powell’s repertoire to Helen Asher (his girlfriend) ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/71 "2025-08-09T21:08:26Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m usually more intrigued by this situation- where they cast a well known singer, and then _don’t_ have them sing My favorite Fred Astaire movie is the 1961 film _The Pleasure of His Company_, in which he neither sings nor dances. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/72 "2025-08-09T21:24:53Z")
Heh, the “piano player.” Hoagy Carmichael is rather a big deal in 20th C. American popular music. And, sorry, Lauren Bacall’s singing in that film is not good. I’ve seen her do better, but she’s not a talented singer. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/73 "2025-08-09T21:27:46Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m usually more intrigued by this situation- where they cast a well known singer, and then _don’t_ have them sing Eugene Hütz of Gogol Bordello didn’t do any singing in _Everything Is Illuminated_ - though he mock-conducted the Ukrainian folk band at the train station, played by…the rest of Gogol Bordello. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/74 "2025-08-09T21:29:27Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > 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_. Slight hijack, but: now I’m wondering if the _Can You Read My Mind_ bit in SUPERMAN was scripted when they thought they’d hire an actress who sings, and if Margot Kidder then pointed out that, ‘yeah, I don’t sing.’ ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/75 "2025-08-09T21:53:16Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > _My favorite Fred Astaire movie is the 1961 film The Pleasure of His Company, in which he neither sings nor dances._ Fred Astaire’s first dramatic role was “On the Beach.” Y’know, the movie about the end of the world where everyone dies? His character commits suicide by carbon monoxide. That was the first movie I ever saw him in. I was 10 years old at the time, and was surprised to discover he was a famous song and dance man many years later, when I saw “The Band Wagon” on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/76 "2025-08-11T01:09:31Z")
Does lip-syncing count? (Dean Stockwell paying tribute to Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” in “Blue Velvet”) Sandra Bernhart singing “Come Rain or Come Shine” to a slightly taped-up Jerry Lewis in “King of Comedy”. In “After Hours”, a couple dance to Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is” just before he ends up in a situation similar to Jerry’s, above. Woman breaking out in “Ode to Joy” in Korova Milkbar in “Clockwork Orange”. The (drunk) psychopathic protagonist in “Man Bites Dog” bellowing out “Cinema!” as he stumbles into things. A party scene in “The Reckoning” where a drunk Nicol Williamson starts singing some old British song and then when someone else joins in on the singing NW punches him. “Camelot” in “…Holy Grail”? Stephen Bishop briefly doing some proto-hippy singing on the stairs with an acoustic guitar and fawning girls before Mr. Belushi grabs it and smashes it into pieces into “Animal House”. (“…sorry…”) Random shots of the incredibly inane Tony and the Roosters practicing away, driving yet another psychotic protagonist - Abel Ferrara - their upstairs neighbour, into a yet even deeper psychotic power-drilling rage, in “Driller Killer”. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/77 "2025-08-11T01:39:44Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Heh, the “piano player.” Hoagy Carmichael is rather a big deal in 20th C. American popular music. And, sorry, Lauren Bacall’s singing in that film is not good. I’ve seen her do better, but she’s not a talented singer. When I think of Hoagy Carmichael I think of this scene in _The Best Years of Our lives._ [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/L20LQTrUgUo/maxresdefault.jpg "The Best Years of Our Lives (1946): Hoagy Carmichael Piano Scene") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L20LQTrUgUo) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/78 "2025-08-11T01:46:40Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Woman breaking out in “Ode to Joy” in Korova Milkbar in “Clockwork Orange”. Funnily enough (?), Malcolm McDowell’s character does the same thing on _Mozart in the Jungle_ while testing his mic for a radio interview. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/79 "2025-08-11T02:17:00Z")
Harry Belafonte sings an original song, “My Baby’s Not Around,” in _Odds Against Tomorrow_. IIRC, it’s not especially relevant to the plot. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852/80 "2025-08-11T05:25:16Z")
Best I can come up with is Adam Driver singing “Being Alive” in _Marriage Story_ and Andrew Berth Feldman singing “Maneater” in _No Hard Feelings._ Truth be told, neither is exactly Neil Patrick Harris nor known as singers, but they definitely give it the ol’ yeoman’s try. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-singer-sings-let-me-explain/1021852.md?page=5)