# When popular artforms collide: songs about movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 5, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701 "2004-02-05T18:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/41 "2010-01-10T10:31:56Z")
[“Leroy”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3xfIlHsP0Q) by The Fibonaccis, based on **The Bad Seed**. Someone with the right equipment and editing talent really needs to set that song to scenes from the movie, but having access to the song is better than not having access to the song. > [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Blade Runner. [“Roy (Back From The Offworld)”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTa0Ccbm2jQ) Another one based on Blade Runner. (here’s a [fan video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86zVHzNbunI) set to the movie, but the audio is bad. I don’t know the person who did it) If we expand a bit and add songs inspired by movies… [“Down Down”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PSd8EnsJt8) Inspired by the submarines of **Das Boot** and **The Hunt For Red October**. [“Charlie”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBmM7Lyjbe0) Inspired by Robert Crumb’s brother Charles in the Terry Zwigoff movie **Crumb**. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/42 "2010-01-10T16:03:53Z")
The Roxy Music song “2HB” was written about Humphrey Bogart (hence the title), and specifically references _Casablanca_, so that may count. More recently, Lady GaGa’s “Bad Romance” contains a few Hitchcock references (_Psycho_, _Vertigo_, and _Rear Window_), but this amounts to just a couple of lines in a much longer song otherwise not about movies. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/43 "2010-01-10T16:22:07Z")
**Death Cab For Cutie** ’s [Death of an Interior Decorator](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW_WLwlSB0w) was based on the Woody Allen’s movie “Interiors”. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/44 "2010-01-10T18:03:08Z")
Weird Al also had “The Saga Begins”, based on Phantom Menace. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/45 "2010-01-10T23:05:23Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > “Western Movies” - The Olympics > Lord, I’m old. And how about their other song, “Along Came Jones”? ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/46 "2010-01-10T23:19:53Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > And how about their other song, “Along Came Jones”? I thought that was by The Coasters? ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/47 "2010-01-10T23:47:30Z")
Juice Newton’s “Gonna Find You” contains the line “like a James Dean movie.” Robert Mitchum’s [Ballad of Thunder Road](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jvftxqw5ld6e) tells the story of his 1958 cult classic movie Thunder Road. It even made the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #62 in 1958 and back at #65 in 1962 when the movie was released to drive-ins. ---
**Author:** ![tsukaesugi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@tsukaesugi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsukaesugi)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/48 "2010-01-11T02:00:09Z")
A lot of the songs by the Misfits are about horror movies: Night of the Living Dead Astro Zombies Return of the Fly The Haunting Mars Attacks etc. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/49 "2010-01-11T21:41:54Z")
> [@Interrobang](#): > > How many others are out there? Note that these must be songs **about** a movie, not written for a movie and featured in the credits or something. Heh, I’m surprised no one has mentioned an entire album that was made about a Movie that was NOT written as the movie’s soundtrack nor featured IN the movie: **Jay-Z** ’s _American Gangster_ is pretty much an entire album about the film of the same name, but was pretty much just him being inspired by the movie after seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/50 "2010-01-11T22:14:40Z")
“I Am Spartacus” from the **That Thing You Do** soundtrack. No lyrics, just a drum solo, but the title name-checks **Spartacus** … ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/51 "2010-01-11T22:15:21Z")
This one’s a little off the wall: [“Mr Jaws”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDNlSpKLEEo) by Dickie Goodman. It looks like he did [several movie parodies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickie_Goodman), including “Superfly Meets Shaft” and “Star Warts”. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/52 "2010-01-12T06:56:09Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I thought that was by The Coasters? _Sonovagun_! You’re totally right. ---
**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:** [January 12, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/53 "2010-01-12T12:54:16Z")
Dire Straits Romeo and Juliet _there’s a place for us you know the movie song when you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong?_ Refers to _West Side Story_ ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701/54 "2010-01-12T14:57:17Z")
The **Big Audio Dynamite** song “E=MC2” (also sometimes called “Relativity”) is about several films by Nicolas Roeg, including: Insignificance (“Ritual ideas, relativity/Only buildings, no people, prophecy”) The Man Who Fell to Earth (“Space guy fell from the sky/Scratched my head and wondered why”) Don’t Look Now ("Man dies first reel/People ask “What’s the deal?”) Performance (“Gangland slaying underground/New identity must be found”) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-popular-artforms-collide-songs-about-movies/227701.md?page=2)