Pick a Day

Music History Events: Movies

December 5, 1980 The movie Flash Gordon, with a theme song by Queen, opens in theaters.

June 6, 1980 Urban Cowboy, a Western romance film starring John Travolta and Debra Winger, opens in theaters. The mellow country soundtrack spawns hits from Kenny Rogers, Johnny Lee, and Anne Murray, and spurs a trend of pop-leaning fare in country music dubbed the "Urban Cowboy Movement."More

September 22, 1978 Tom Waits makes his film debut in Paradise Alley, written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, playing a bar-dwelling piano player named Mumbles.

February 11, 1977 Motown Productions debuts its first film, Scott Joplin, based on the life of the ragtime composer. Billy Dee Williams earns accolades for his performance as the "Maple Leaf Rag" mastermind, but the film is widely criticized for being too grim.

November 12, 1976 All This And World War II opens in theaters. The film is a disjointed collection of WWII newsreel footage and clips from other movies soundtracked to covers of Beatles songs, the most successful of which is Ambrosia's version of "Magical Mystery Tour."

October 20, 1976 The Led Zeppelin concert documentary The Song Remains The Same opens in London and New York, with the band attending the New York premiere.

June 20, 1975 John Travolta makes his film debut as a Satanist in the horror flick The Devil's Rain, starring William Shatner. Just two years later, Travolta struts his stuff in Saturday Night Fever.

March 14, 1975 The movie Rancho Deluxe, starring Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston as Montana cattle ranchers, debuts in US theaters. It features a soundtrack by Jimmy Buffett, who appears in the film singing the tune "Livingston Saturday Night."

March 22, 1974 Catch My Soul, an updated version of Shakespeare's Othello for the hippie generation, premieres in New York City with Richie Havens in the lead role. Tony Joe White and Delaney & Bonnie also star.

December 26, 1973 The horror movie The Exorcist hits theaters, with a portion of the Mike Oldfield instrumental "Tubular Bells" as the theme music. A 3:18 version of the song (it's 25-minutes long on the album) is released as a single, going to #7 in the US.

May 23, 1973 Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson, debuts in theaters. In addition to scoring and writing songs for the film, Bob Dylan makes his acting debut as a knife-wielding stranger named Alias. His acting is derided, but he lands a hit with "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."

October 13, 1971 The Velvet Vampire is released in the US; the soundtrack includes "Evil Hearted Woman Blues" performed live by its composer Johnny Shines.

June 24, 1971 Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller is released to theaters. Altman loves Leonard Cohen's work, and the soundtrack for this "anti-western" leans heavily on three songs from Songs of Leonard Cohen. On the merits of his film Brewster McCloud, which Cohen had seen and loved, Altman sold Cohen on the project and even convinced the "prince of pessimism" to create some new music for the film.

November 11, 1970 Elvis Presley's concert film That's The Way It Is opens to generally favorable reviews.

August 27, 1970 The sci-fi musical Toomorrow, starring newcomer Olivia Newton-John as a pop singer whose band gets abducted by aliens, debuts in theaters. The film is meant to be a vehicle for the title group, but flops, pushing Newton-John towards a solo career.

June 21, 1970 Art Garfunkel makes his acting debut in the movie Catch-22. Paul Simon was also slated for a role in the film, but was dropped, leading to a rift that broke up Simon & Garfunkel.

April 15, 1970 Michael Wadleigh's Woodstock, a film chronicle of the famed 1969 counterculture festival, wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

April 7, 1970 Popular songwriting team Hal David and Burt Bacharach win the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" from the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Performed by B.J. Thomas, it hit #1 on the US charts. Bacharach also takes the prize for Best Original Score for his work on the film.

July 14, 1969 The movie Easy Rider, which opens with the heavy metal thunder of "Born To Be Wild," opens in theaters. The film stars Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as motorcycle-riding free spirits. The soundtrack sells over 500,000 copies.

June 24, 1969 Written and produced by Sonny Bono, the romantic drama Chastity casts Cher, in her first solo film role, as a hippie runaway who tries to overcome her troubled past. The movie bombs and turns Cher off from acting in films for the next decade.More

September 19, 1968 Barbra Streisand transitions from Broadway to the big screen in her first film role as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. The singer, who originated the part on stage, wins the Oscar for Best Actress, sharing the title with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter.

December 23, 1966 Eighteen-year-old Olivia Newton-John makes her film debut in the Australian musical comedy Funny Things Happen Down Under, about a group of kids who stumble upon a formula to make rainbow-colored sheep's wool. Olivia has a minor role but sings "Christmas Time Down Under."

October 17, 1966 Elvis Presley plays a race-car driver in his 22nd movie, Spinout, which premieres in Memphis, Tennessee.

April 2, 1966 The Singing Nun, starring Debbie Reynolds, opens in theaters. The film is based on Sister Luc-Gabrielle, a Belgian nun who had a #1 US hit with the French language song "Dominique," re-written in English for the film. Luc-Gabrielle declares it "absolutely idiotic."

January 19, 1966 The documentary A Boy Called Donovan airs on British TV. The film follows the singer Donovan as he goes to parties and makes music. In one scene, one of his associates is seen smoking marijuana, which is kind of shocking. This makes Donovan a target for the London drug squad, who make him their first high-profile bust when they arrest him in June for possession of marijuana. Members of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are later victims.

April 5, 1965 "Chim Chim Cher-ee," composed by The Sherman Brothers for the Disney musical Mary Poppins, wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

September 18, 1964 The James Bond movie Goldfinger, with a theme song by Shirley Bassey, is released.

April 13, 1963 At the 36th Academy Awards, Bobby Darin is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a traumatized war hero in the drama Captain Newman, M.D. He loses to Melvyn Douglas in the Western Hud.

September 13, 1962 Frank Sinatra begins filming the movie Come Blow Your Horn, adapted from the hit Neil Simon play.

May 25, 1962 The West Side Story soundtrack goes to #1 in the US, where it stays for a record 54 (non-consecutive) weeks.